Hudson Fiber Network creates alternative fiber service option with Manhattan buildout

Hudson Fiber Network (HFN) has completed the installation of bulk cable throughout Manhattan, bringing a new fiber service source to New York City's major commercial buildings and data centers.

Among the new data center locations that the bulk cable will add lit and dark fiber options to are 111 Eighth Avenue, 60 Hudson Street, and 325 Hudson Street.

It plans to add additional fiber connections including data centers at 375 Pearl Street, 32 Avenue of the Americas and 85 Tenth Avenue.

HFN said in a release that the new cable will enable it to deliver a mix of lit and dark fiber services to a number of commercial buildings that either don't yet have fiber or require diverse carrier access.

The NYC cable connects into its core New Jersey network, providing customers access to national and international access connection points.

"We completed the build out of our New York City network backbone and we're connecting some critical data centers for us," said Keith Muller, COO of HFN in an interview with FierceTelecom. "We've put some splice points along the way for customers in New York looking for diverse entry or alternative carrier and typically we can build to them within 60-90 days."

What significant about this build is that it HFN can save opex costs as it replaces a lot of fiber it leased from other providers.

"For us it's a big move to replace a lot of leased fiber that we have currently," Muller said. "We have a construction partner and we leveraged their relationships and it was a bulk purchase of a large cable so we have the indefinite rights for a hundred years on it."

But saving capex is only one part of HFN's fiber build out equation. The service provider plans to start offering dark fiber to other carriers and enterprise customers.

"Having the ability to sell dark fiber is something that we really have not had the luxury of doing because we built a couple of routes in New Jersey, but this is the first time we have had the opportunity to sell dark fiber," Muller said. "We're going to stay our course by dipping into the various buckets: enterprise customers, financial and carrier we're going stay that course."

While there have been a lot of new entrants into the dark fiber market-- including a number in the New York City area--Muller says that it will differentiate itself by the way it builds its network and the fact that it has new fiber to offer customers.  

"There's a lot of legacy fiber and the quality of the fiber just may not be there and we know that from leasing dark fiber," Muller said. "Oftentimes we're retuning our optics because of all sorts of loss that we're picking up on older fiber and there are a lot of enterprises that understand that and would be looking for new fiber."

Muller added that "we're going across the Northern bore in Manhattan and that's another differentiator versus one of the transit tunnels because it's not susceptible to transit accidents."

Besides the commercial sites it serves in Manhattan, HFN provides services to over 50 commercial buildings throughout New York City.

HFN is one of a new generation of providers that have emerged in recent years offering dark fiber solutions for carriers and enterprises that want to take control of their network infrastructure. It has also been an advocate of providing low latency network routes, with partners like Cross River Fiber, for financial institutions.

For more:
- see the release

Related articles:
Hudson Fiber Network, Cross River Fiber tap into New Jersey's low-latency opportunity
Cross River Fiber capitalizes on NYSE Euronext's new data center rules with New Jersey fiber routes
Dark fiber providers may see $986M market as broadband data demand rises

This article was updated on July 13 with additional information from Hudson Fiber Networks.