Cross River Lights Up With MRV

Cross River Fiber has been shifting from pure dark fiber over into lit services, and today we learned a few details on how they are doing it.  They have tapped MRV Communications to provide the packet and optical gear for the transformation.

Cross River will be using MRV’s OptiDriver solution to interconnect with third party providers over in New York City.  I suspect that’s related at least in part to the news from a few months back which saw Cross River teaming up with RCN Business, with whom their assets are naturally complementary.  Cross River is also using MRV’s OptiSwitch Carrier Ethernet platform to power its Carrier Ethernet capabilities.

The move into lit services gives Cross River more options to serve the enterprise market in northern New Jersey. While more enterprises than ever like dark fiber, plenty still are looking for a more managed lit solution.

The company was founded as a boutique dark fiber builder that aimed initially at the low-latency-sensitive financial community.  But having used that as a stepping stone, they have built out a regional fiber network capable of serving a much wider range of businesses.  They are also moving into more adjacent regions, including to the southeast along the Jersey Shore to pick up those key cable landing stations.

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