El Paso Energy Communications Co., a subsidiary of Houston-basedEl Paso Energy; Touch America, a subsidiary of The Montana PowerCo.; and PF.Net LLC of Vancouver, a privately held company, plan tolaunch a $150 million project to create a long-haul fiber-opticnetwork linking Los Angeles and Houston.

The route, spanning 1,500 miles, will initially provide newconnectivity and advanced telecommunications services to severalgrowing metropolitan areas along the southwestern route, includingPhoenix, Tucson, and El Paso, in addition to Los Angeles andHouston. The project is scheduled for completion in 2000.

Touch America and El Paso Energy Communications are partneringfor a one-half interest in the route. Touch America is providingconstruction management for this segment of the project, while ElPaso Energy is providing right-of-way.

PF.Net is responsible for constructing the other half of theroute, whose owners are PF Telecom, headed by John Warta, and KochVentures, a wholly owned subsidiary of Koch Industries, which isthe second largest private company in the United States. KochIndustries has committed its 57,000 miles of right- of-way toPF.Net.

Monday Columbia Transmission Communications (CTC), awholly-owned subsidiary of Columbia Energy Group, unveiled plans tobegin building the initial leg of its telecommunications network(See Daily GPI June 15, 1999). The initial leg of the overall routewill extend 260 miles from New York City to Washington D.C. usingColumbia Gas Transmission’s right-of-way. It will be capable ofproviding voice, data and video signal access to 16 million people.The company is developing plans to extend this network to 2,500route miles with direct access to 35 million people throughout theeastern United States, including lines to Cleveland, Cincinnati andNew Orleans.

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