TW Takes Fiber to the Farmers Market

There was a time when multisite networking contracts went to data centers, switching centers, skyscrapers, and satellite offices of multinational corporations. These days though it’s farmers markets, at least if TW Telecom (NASDAQ:TWTC, news, filings) is any indication. Today they announced a contract with Sprouts, an operator of more than 100 such stores across Arizona, California, Texas, and Colorado.

tw telecom will be providing a set of converged services including voice, internet access, and an MPLS IP VPN, which will no doubt make Sprouts more efficient at keeping track of all those, err, vegetables. The two companies were already working together, but Sprouts recently purchased Henry’s Farmers Market in a deal that takes them from up from 60 stores to 100+.  They are obviously upgrading their overall network and thus expanding its purchases.

Lately, tw telecom has accelerated the rate at which it is adding buildings to its network. Next week we will see if they added yet another 500 or so during the third quarter.  Either way, they have clearly been finding it economically justifiable to extend their network into a wider variety of enterprises along their metro rings, just as others like Zayo have been finding fiber-to-the-tower more and more feasible.  That’s good news for the metro fiber business, although it’s not as if they were hurting for places to invest cash.

If you haven't already, please take our Reader Survey! Just 3 questions to help us better understand who is reading Telecom Ramblings so we can serve you better!

Categories: Metro fiber