Integra Telecom to provide Ethernet services to Washington state

Integra Telecom on Thursday won contracts to provide Ethernet services to both the State of Washington and the University of Washington.

Through its Secondary Ethernet Transport contract with the state of Washington, Integra will be able to provide Ethernet services to any state, county and city departments in addition to any institution within the K-20 Education Network. The K-20 network provides video and data services to more than 2,500 schools and colleges throughout Washington.

With its University of Washington contract, Integra will be able to provide Ethernet service to a mix of educational institutions, including four-year universities and community colleges as well as University of Washington-affiliated medical centers, public libraries and institutions within the K-20 Education Network.

Winning these contracts align well with the Portland, Ore.-based CLEC's goals to expand out of its traditional small to medium business (SMB) base and into medium-sized regional customers like state government and education.

In recent years, the service provider has aggressively built out its Ethernet reach via a mix of its own fiber and renting copper facilities from traditional ILECs such as CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) to deliver Ethernet over Copper (EoC)-based services.  

As of the end of Q2, CLEC has expanded its on-net fiber to 2,097 buildings, including 174 new customer builds, and extended its EoC network into 120 COs in its six-state Western U.S. footprint. Outside of its traditional territories, the service provider has also expanded its Ethernet reach through External-Network to Network Interconnection (E-NNI) agreements with other service provider partners.  

For more:
- see the release

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