SpectraNet Gets Funds, New Name

Telecommunications firm SpectraNet International said it has received $30 million in outside funding and changed its corporate name.

The equity funding came from telecommunications investment firm Donald L. Sturm and Associates of Denver and a division of Houston-based energy company Enron Corp.

The company, which has offices here and in San Diego, said it will use the funding to expand its communications network in Orange County.

The company’s board of directors also voted to change the company’s name to FirstWorld Communications Inc. The shift reflects the firm’s current focus on the domestic telecommunications market. The change also is tied in with the name of the company’s data network in Orange County, FirstWorld Network.

Last July, the company began offering telephone, video and Internet services to the city of Anaheim. The firm is leasing the city’s 50-mile fiber-optic network built by the municipal power company and using the loop as the backbone for a new telecommunications network that will eventually connect every business and residence in town, officials said.