US high speed infrastructure builder Qwest Communications International Inc has clinched a deal to provide Apex Global Internet Services Inc with some 10,000 miles of speedy OC-48, 2.4Gbps fiber optic cable. The contract is valued at $260m, and under the terms of the agreement Qwest will take 19.99% of AGIS common stock and a seat on the AGIS board of directors. The multi-year contract will see the companies working on a joint marketing arrangement to expand their product and service offering to include Internet Protocol telephony, video conferencing, Asynchronous Transfer Mode and frame relay services. Qwest is still building its planned 16,000 mile network that will serve over 125 cities in the US when it is planned to be completed in the second quarter of next year. But the fact that the network has yet to be completed has not stopped the Denver, Colorado firm from making money out of it. At the end of October the company announced it had completed less than 20% of the network (CI No 3,279), but it is still managing to turn in a profit, and most recently reported a third quarter net profit of $12.7m on a revenue of $188.9m (CI No 3,278). AGIS, founded in 1994, will use the Qwest network as its Sonet backbone. The companies will interconnect their networks to expand their geographic reach. Coinciding with this latest news from Qwest, the company has revealed that it will add another 288 miles of cable between New York and Boston.
