Network Bytes: Zayo, FirstLight, iRis, Windstream, NJFX

TGIF with a fine fall weekend ahead. Here’s some network news items to consider before heading out:

Zayo said this week that its new north/south longhaul route between Omaha and Dallas is feeling the love. Seven new customers have already signed on for dark fiber on the route in addition to the original anchor customer, justifying a project that had obviously contained a speculative aspect. The route is expected to be ready for service in late 2016, which is ahead of the original projection of 2017 but still a year off.

FirstLight Fiber went bowling up in Vermont this week. They’re providing dedicated internet via redundant, diverse fiber circuits to Bowl New England. Colchester-based Bowl New England has 16 locations spread across New England, New York, Alabama, North Carolina, and Tennessee, all of which will be handled by FirstLight. They’ll also be looking to colo in one of the operator’s five data centers later on.

In the southeast, iRis Networks and NGN have connected their respective networks. With a fiber Ethernet interconnection in place, the two can serve a broader swath of Tennessee and northern Georgia. If this sounds familiar, iRis announced a similar interconnection deal with Ritter Communications earlier this year, extending their reach into Arkansas.

Windstream added another market for its fixed wireless offerings. They are now offering fixed wireless connectivity for enterprises in Cleveland, Ohio. It’s a service they also sell in Chicago, Milwaukee, NYC, northern NJ, Boston, and Philadelphia — all markets in which they do not operate as an incumbent.

And back in my home state of New Jersey, the Jersey Shore has a new meet-me room down on the Jersey Shore. NJFX says it has formally launched the MMR inside Tata Communications’ international cable landing station in Wall Township, NJ. In addition to hosting one end of Tata’s transatlantic cable, this location also happens to be where one of the new cables between Brazil and the US will be landing next year. NJFX revealed plans to develop 52K square feet of space in the area back in January.

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Categories: Fiber Networks · Interconnection · Undersea cables · Wireless