LEWISTON – Like spokes in a wheel, Oxford Networks is spreading out across Lewiston-Auburn.

After offering its cable TV, phone and high-speed Internet to about 5,000 homes and businesses in Lewiston-Auburn’s downtown, the company plans to extend its fiber optic lines along some of the region’s busiest roads.

The aim is to reach out with these lines from the downtown and then, in future years, to move into side streets, where more neighborhoods will be offered service, said Oxford Networks President and CEO Roderick Anstey.

The expansion is required by contract. By 2008, the company is obligated to offer its services to every home in Lewiston and Auburn.

Several heavily populated neighborhoods of Lewiston-Auburn will probably have to wait until 2006 or later. The Bates College area, Russell and Montello streets and most of New Auburn are not on the 2005 calendar. Rural areas will wait even longer.

The company is pacing itself, Anstey said. It must. Too many similar companies have gone broke or suffered crippling losses by growing too fast.

“The telecommunications industry is littered with failure,” Anstey said. “We’ve been around for 104 years. We’re not going to overextend.”

However, the company is moving at a brisk pace, said the CEO, sitting in his new corner office overlooking Lisbon Street.

Three months ago, Oxford Networks opened its new headquarters at the corner of Lisbon and Canal streets. Meanwhile, the company has wired the densest sections of the Twin Cities’ downtowns and twice spread lines across the Androscoggin River.

This year, the lines are planned to go up routes 202 and 196 in Lewiston and Route 4 in Auburn. They will also spread out along Webster Street in Lewiston and extend south of Lisbon Street, to the site of the new Wal-Mart distribution center.

Before the project is finished in 2008, the company plans to spend about $20 million in construction.

It has spent $4 million on the house-like structure a few doors down from the corporate headquarters. With mirrored glass hiding cement walls, the small building is the technological nerve center for Oxford Networks’ services.

“We’re installing services every day,” said Brian Paul, the company’s vice president of business development.

A good problem’

Again, the company is moving at its own pace. In some cases, the lines have been extended past people’s homes or businesses, but the company has waited until its workers complete the installations in one area before opening another to customers.

Anstey declined to say how many homeowners or businesspeople have signed on, but the company’s market share met predictions precisely.

“It came in exactly as predicted,” Anstey said. “Exactly.”

Part of that is owed to the company’s use of focus groups. On a regular basis, executives assemble people who have either signed up, may sign up or have refused to.

Most people who sign up for several options – such as cable and telephone service – like the ability to pay for both services on one bill, Anstey said. They like accessories, such as the caller ID system, which displays an incoming number on the TV screen.

But for people on a tight budget, it can be a luxury, he said. Packages begin at $79.95 for cable TV and one of the other services, including local phone, long-distance phone and high-speed Internet.

Even so, the demand appears to be climbing.

The expansion plan, which will also include service to new neighborhoods in Lewiston, is unlikely to be fast enough for some customers.

Rate hikes and changes in the industry have led to angry folks eager for a change.

“Some people call us every week,” Anstey said. “We tell them we’ll call them as soon as we’re ready.

“It’s a good problem to have,” he said.

Breakout>

The Bates College area, Russell and Montello streets and most of New Auburn will not be wired in 2005. Rural areas will wait even longer.