Wednesday Bytes: RETN, Hurricane Electric, Brightspeed, Lumen

Four bits of news at midweek before the long weekend here in the US:

RETN has rolled out a new fiber route in northern Italy. The pan-European network operator has launched a 360km span between Milan and Padua, taking a more optimal path including the shortest segment between Milan and Ponte San Pietro. The endpoints are in Milan’s Caldera Campus, the Padua VSIX, and the Aruba Data Center in Ponte San Pietro.

Hurricane Electric has found a new destination for a point of presence on its IPv6-native internet backbone. The newly deployed PoP sits in Paducah, Kentucky within the Quad State Internet PAH1 data center. Paducah is on the Ohio River just before it joins the Mississippi, midway between St. Louis, Louisville, Memphis, and Nashville.

Brightspeed is expanding its FTTx efforts in the Piedmont region of North Carolina. They have built out to 10,700 homes in the towns of North Wilkesboro, Eden, and Mebane, which sit to the west, north, and east of the combined Winston Salem and Greensboro metro area. When the project is complete, the total of homes and businesses passed will reach 29,000 or so.

And Lumen has taken aim at its balance sheet as it prepares for the next phase of AI-related growth. Within their Level 3 Financing subsidiary, the company closed on $2.0B in new 6.875% First Lien Notes due 2033. They’ll use that to redeem $925M in 10.5% notes due 2030, $668M in 10.5% notes due 2029, and $167M in 11% notes due 2029. The move will both reduce interest expenses and simplify things going forward.

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Categories: Fiber Networks · Financials · FTTH · Internet Backbones