Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 5, 1993 TAG: 9310050142
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. said Monday it has nearly completed installation of a new high-speed, fiber-optic network that will greatly improve the reliability of telephone service in the Roanoke region.
C&P President Hugh Stallard described the network to a lunchtime gathering of business and and government leaders: SONET - Synchronous Optical Network - is the company's technology, based on three large rings of fiber-optic cable that converge in downtown Roanoke. Businesses will be connected directly to those rings with fiber-optic cable.
The largest ring, about 120 miles long, connects Roanoke with Blacksburg and other parts of the New River Valley. A second ring stretches 70 miles from Roanoke through Bedford; a third, 25 miles long, surrounds Roanoke and Salem.
About half the cable will be above ground and half buried; all of it should be operating by year's end.
If one of the rings is accidentally cut somewhere, sophisticated equipment monitoring the network detects the problem and switches phone traffic - conversations and data - in another direction without interrupting service.
C&P says the technology is particularly useful in banks' automatic-teller machines and mainframe-to-mainframe computer links, such as those used by securities brokers.
"Data is becoming so important that businesses can't afford to lose data or have interruptions," Stallard said.
Similar technology has been installed in Hampton Roads, Richmond and Northern Virginia. The SONET rings in Roanoke are the first in Western Virginia, Stallard said. The company hopes to have 50 rings completed throughout the state by the end of 1995, he said.
The primary benefit of the SONET networks is greater reliability of phone service, but it also will make other data services possible and can lower costs, the company said. One advantage is for businesses who have bought dedicated phone lines in the past to ensure reliability. Those lines won't be necessary with the new network, Stallard said.
The new technology is an enhancement for a fiber-optic system already in place, which includes 300,000 miles of cable statewide, 20,300 miles of it in the Roanoke and New River valleys.
C&P started about eight years ago building a high-tech network based on broad-band digital technology, Stallard said. It is investing $375 million annually on new technology. The construction budget in the Roanoke Valley is roughly $30 million.
By the end of the century, maybe by the end of 1995, schools across the state will be tied into similar interactive "distance-learning" networks, Stallard said.
by CNB