As if we needed more evidence that the metro fiber sector remains strong despite the economic disaster that continues to unfold, in the last few days two of the companies I have tracked have found avenues for spending and growing their businesses. Late last week, FiberLight (news) purchased a 20 mile, 96 count fiber network serving downtown Waco Texas from independent telephone company Consolidated Communications. The new fiber joins other Fiberlight’s Texas metro assets in Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio. While it is a small purchase, it continues the trend of metro fiber steadily falling into the hands of those who have figured out how to use it best.
Another of the metro and regional providers I track is the gulf coast provider Southern Light, who announced today that they are deploying Infinera (NASDAQ:INFN, news, filings) gear across their footprint. Southern Light doesn’t speak up too often – their website doesn’t even list their press releases – but they run a substantial network from Louisiana to the Florida panhandle. They chose Infinera’s DWDM solutions for its scalability and manageability, which implies of course that business is brisk and traffic is growing well.
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Categories: Metro fiber · Telecom Equipment
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Any time you can buy fiber, or find dark fiber it is a good thing. Companies are all over it as of late. The problem is the buildouts in off net area’s. This is where there is a separation between metro and the rest of the world.
Thanks for the comment, TJ. There are buildouts to some such areas going on of course. But perhaps the easiest thing now given the capital markets is to simply increase depth. Fiber passes so, so, so many buildings that are still served only by copper.
Didn’t Deltacom just finish up a Infinera deploy? Seems Southern Light and Deltacom are getting cozy…
http://www.xchangemag.com/articles/481/comptel-plus-deltacom-southern-light-ethernet.html
COMPTEL PLUS: Deltacom, Southern Light Create Ethernet NNI
03/03/2009
ITC^DeltaCom Inc. and Southern Light announced at the COMPTEL PLUS Convention & Expo that they have established a bidirectional network-to-network interconnection (NNI) that enables both companies to expand their Ethernet service reach.
The NNI provides Deltacom with access to Southern Light’s fiber-based Ethernet access footprint in multiple markets across Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. The Ethernet access expansion complements Deltacom’s Southeastern intercity network to increase its Ethernet Private Line service availability, providing its wholesale and business customer with more Ethernet locations along the Gulf Coast.
he interconnection also enables Southern Light to access FastE, GigE and 10Gbps intercity Ethernet services from Interstate FiberNet, Deltacom’s wholesale division.
“The expansion of our Ethernet access capabilities into strategic metro markets helps us better serve customers across all segments of our business,” said Tony Tomae, Deltacom executive vice president of sales and marketing. “Southern Light’s metro reach aligns well with our high capacity intercity network to provide our customers with the end-to-end, scalable Ethernet services they require for the increasing bandwidth demands of today’s applications.”
“Southern Light and Deltacom have done business for years, and we are pleased to extend the relationship once again to mutually benefit our customers,” said Andy Newton, president and CEO of Southern Light. “Adding this significant interconnection point between the two networks will help us meet customer demand with a scalable network for years to come.”
Yes, Deltacom did put in Infinera gear recently. I missed the Deltacom/Southern-Light hookup, thanks for the link. Interesting…
There have been many advances in this industry over the last few years. Exciting things to come I’m sure!