Spread Networks tightens up latency along Chicago to New York route

Spread Networks is the latest service provider to take charge of the financial industry's plea for low latency networking solutions along the Chicago to New York route.

With so many service providers pursuing the low-latency opportunity--a list that includes a number of incumbents such as Verizon and competitive carriers (Intellifiber, Level 3, Optimum Lightpath, RCN Metro and XO Communications)--Spread believes what sets it apart from the pack is its approach to low latency.

Although the New York to Chicago route is clearly one of the most popular routes, service provider solutions have the potential to for slowdowns if it is not designed to route around congested points.

Leveraging a mix of optical technologies from ADVA, Ciena, Infinera, and JDSU, Spread is offering financial firms direct access to what it says is the shortest route of about 825 miles, saying it can reduce round-trip latency to 13.33 milliseconds. The service provider said that it will provide "its customers with a private network to achieve a clean speed, allowing data to run as close as possible to the true speed of light through fiber."

Led by the father and son team of CEO David Barksdale and his father Chairman James Barksdale, one of the early builders of Netscape, Spread has built a company that includes a mix of experts in optical and the financial community. In addition to the Barksdale's, the service provider's management team includes President Dan Spivey (Chicago Board of Options Exchange) and Senior Vice President, Murray White, Executive Vice President, Market Development (NYSE Euronext), and VP of Technology and Engineering Michael Strickland (Alcatel and Level 3).

For more:
- see the release here (PDF)

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XO launches nationwide 40 Gbps service
CFN Services drives out network latency with Cyan
First Communications joins the network latency fray