FORT LEE, N.J. -- Everest Broadband Networks, an emerging leader in ``first-mile'' access networks and services for Multi-Tenant Unit (MTU)-based businesses, has signed a 20-year agreement to lease local-loop and in-building fiber-optic infrastructure from Metromedia Fiber Network, Inc. (MFN) (Nasdaq:MFNX - news), the leading provider of optical IP Internet infrastructure in key metropolitan areas domestically and internationally. Through today's agreement, MFN's local-loop and in-building fiber will speed Everest's deployment of gigabit Ethernet services to MTU-based small- and medium-sized businesses by eliminating the need for Everest to build networks in new markets.

Joseph Varello, Everest's vice president of Corporate Development, observed, "By leveraging MFN's metropolitan optical networking infrastructure we gain the unsurpassed ability to bypass the local loop bottleneck and rapidly deploy Gigabit Ethernet and a new price/performance paradigm. This is a critical leap forward toward achieving Everest's goal of becoming the industry's first building services provider to serve its tenant customers as the one-stop source for the best in multi-service transport and innovative, managed network applications that businesses need."

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