Dark Fiber and Infrastructure (DF&I), an emerging dark fiber provider, is acquiring USA Fiber's Northern Virginia and Maryland fiber and conduit assets, a move to further its network presence in a key internet traffic market. Financial terms of the agreement were not revealed.
While DF&I is new to the scene, its founders, John Schmitt and Judd Carothers, are hardly novices in the dark and lit fiber market segment.
Prior to co-founding DF&I, Schmitt and Carothers worked for over 20 years at FiberLight, a pioneering fiber provider as well as working for USA Fiber. The pair also worked at FiberLight’s predecessor ACSI in 1997 at a time when dark fiber assets were being rapidly built out during the early rise of today’s internet.
Gaining access to this route is critical for an up and coming dark fiber provider like DF&I.
RELATED: USA Fiber completes conduit pass under Potomac River
The acquisition and specifically the Potomac River crossing establishes DF&I’s initial position in the region as it moves forward to provide the area’s most direct all underground dark fiber and conduit assets available between Montgomery County, Maryland, and Ashburn, Virginia.
Ashburn is home to the largest internet hub and data center market in North America.
Since USA Fiber already built the fiber across the Potomac River, this acquisition also alleviates a key challenge in terms of gaining necessary permits and rights of way for DF&I.
The cable system, which was completed in September 2016, will create new supply for core carrier networks, network platforms and diversity in the greater Baltimore/Washington, D.C., metro area. Already, the route has customers using services. At the time USA Fiber completed the route, it also announced the sale of more than 24 miles of conduit to an unnamed Fortune 500 company.