Zayo Group is expanding its fiber network yet again. This time the competitive dark and lit fiber provider is adding 1,700 miles of fiber network throughout Minnesota.
In this new deployment, Zayo will extend its fiber network throughout major cities including Minneapolis, St. Paul and other adjacent markets, including St. Cloud, Rochester, Owatonna and Northfield.
Along with selling wholesale bandwidth to other service providers and business customers, Zayo is going to up its fiber to the tower (FTT) coverage to serve a number of wireless operators in five Minnesota markets. Specifically, Zayo will add both Ethernet and TDM services to 350 wireless cell sites in addition to connectivity to a new unnamed wireless mobile switching center (MSC).
The expansion of its fiber network in its Minnesota market and subsequent FTT reach have been an ongoing pattern for Zayo that complements its recently completed acquisition of American Fiber Systems, which also had existing presence in the Minneapolis market.
"There were really three things that came together here," Chris Morley, CFO of Zayo Bandwidth said in an interview with FierceTelecom. "One was a large fiber to the tower (FTT) deal with a number of anchor clients that contributes about a 1,000 miles of network in the Greater Minneapolis area. That, in conjunction with the AFS and the stimulus award in Anoka County delivers about 1,700 new route miles of network that's pretty dense throughout that Minneapolis, St. Paul area."
Morley added that while Zayo the new expansion wasn't just about upping its wholesale bandwidth power.
"We had a good presence in Minnesota via our Onvoy acquisition, but a lot of our network was regionally-based so this puts on par with larger markets like Philadelphia and others to serve a number of opportunities for Zayo Bandwidth traditional wholesale customer targets as well as businesses in Minnesota," he said.
Indeed. While Zayo has not announced any other acquisition or expansion plans, the expansion of its Minnesota market means that Zayo will have over 23,000 fiber route miles.
For more:
- see the release
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