Optical Communications Group, a competitive fiber provider, on Tuesday announced that its fiber services are available in 50 new buildings in Lower Manhattan.
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Part of OCG's New York City area network. (Source: OCG) |
Driven by the immediate need to help other service providers in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, OCG said it is able to reconnect networks to their previous carriers as well as add new connections.
While not revealing what providers it is working with, OCG did say that it has "partnered with major carriers in the area to provide voice and Internet services to customers in need."
Since OCG's "Manhattan BYPASS Network" was not affected by the storm, the service provider was able to provide new connection points to help get networks that had severe cable damage get back online.
One of the key buildings that OCG has extended its service to is 75 Broad Street in New York City, which was damaged by flooding.
In related news, the aftermath of the storm has prompted Verizon (NYSE: VZ), one of New York City's largest telcos, to completely replace damaged copper cables with fiber.
Lowell McAdam, Verizon's CEO and Chairman, confirmed last week during UBS Warburg's 40th Annual Global Media and Communications Conference in New York, that it is replacing the damaged copper cables in the Broad Street area and areas of New Jersey such as the Barrier Islands with fiber.
"In Broad Street, that is literally the entire feeder cable [that] will be converted over to fiber," he said, adding that the "businesses will be able to add services, higher-speed services, change their services much more easily than we could in a copper environment."
For more:
- see the release
Special coverage: Hurricane Sandy's aftermath
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