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April 5, 2001 By June Santon Pathnet Telecommunications, Inc., a high-speed communications-line builder, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The action follows close on the heels of the same action by REAnet, a company created by the Empire and La Plata electric associations to bring fiber-optic telecommunications service to Durango, Cortez and Farmington. Pathnet was the builder of the network. According to Patti Kelly, media-relations representative for Pathnet, the action will not spell the end of Pathnet and will not be noticed by the public and corporate users of the high-speed communications lines. "We are continuing operations and we will continue to meet our customers’ requirements. The build (fiber) is virtually complete and we have turned on services. We’re going to continue to do that," Kelly said. Under the dark-fiber network agreement, Pathnet and five electric cooperatives agreed to build the fiber-optics highway from Albuquerque to Grand Junction. "The line is built. It’s up," said Jim Van Someren, spokesman for Tri-state Generation and Transmission. "We don’t foresee any immediate or major implication. Tri-State has been a partner in the building of the system." Dave Waller, spokesman for partner LPEA, also said the cooperative is financially strong, with sources of income from other investments, and doesn’t expect to suffer. A year ago, the partners revised their original business plan to expand service north to Interstate 70 and east to I-25. In the course of building the fiber-optic network and initiating service, the project spent $350 million, according to Kelly. |
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Copyright © 2001 the Cortez
Journal. All rights reserved. |
