Tuesday Bytes: 123Net, PFN, American Tower, Stonepeak, BDx, GlobalConnect

A new terrestrial route, a subsea route, a new investor, and a new interconnection option:

123Net and Peninsula Fiber Network are teaming up for 130 route miles of new fiber up in Michigan. It’s a middle mile route between the Detroit suburb of Southfield and Bay City, 100 miles to the north on Lake Huron. The new infrastructure runs mostly along I-75, connecting multiple communities along the way. If it all goes well, the new fiber route is expected to be complete in about 18 months.

American Tower has brought in some outside money to power its data center expansion. Stonepeak is acquiring a 29% interest in the company’s data center division for $2.5B. American Tower operates 27 facilities in 10 US markets, which it assembled via the Coresite and ColoAtl deals. Stonepeak and American Tower plan to use the division as a platform upon which to layer additional growth opportunities.

Big Data Exchange has unveiled a new interconnection option for its tenants in Hong Kong. Console Connect’s software defined platform has now been made available via a new PoP, enabling direct connectivity to the major cloud platforms across 12 markets in the region. Console Connect has certainly found new life as part of PCCW.

And according to Capacity, GlobalConnect has begun installation of a new cable system in the Baltic Sea. The Digital E4 cable will connect Sweden with the Danish Island of Bornholm, featuring 192-fibers. Hexatronic will build the cable itself, while Baltic Offshore will lay it on the seabed. From Bornholm, other cables will enable an alternative route to Germany, bypassing Denmark.

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Categories: Datacenter · Fiber Networks · Interconnection · Undersea cables