ExteNet Taps LightRiver for Metro Core Upgrade

ExteNet Systems announced some upgrade plans for its metro core network this morning. They are partnering with LightRiver to implement 200G and prepare a migration path to 400G and 800G.

LightRiver does the heavy lifting on network deployments and upgrades for many buildout projects we hear about, but it rarely gets the credit. Such projects don’t come around often enough for all network operators to justify having the resources to do them on hand all the time. So LightRiver basically hires out its expertise and facilities to supplement those resources when they are needed.

ExteNet has been steadily building out the infrastructure for next generation wireless and wired converged infrastructure for everything from in-building projects to small cells to metro backhaul networks. In this case they were looking for SDN-powered network automation capabilities as well as the necessary hardware, which is something LightRiver has been actively integrating into its capabilities.

ExteNet is owned by Digital Bridge, and hence now by Colony Capital. They raised some $368M over the summer to power the next wave of buildouts in support of 5G projects, and over the past few years acquired Hudson Fiber Networks and Axiom Fiber to further their capabilities.

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