Optimum Lightpath Introduces Low Latency Service

Optimum Lightpath, the metro fiber arm of Cablevision, has thrown a few more chips into the low latency arena.  Yesterday they introduced an optical transport service aimed at the financial and other verticals capable of supporting both high bandwidth and low latency.  This follows closely on the heels of their 40G offerings announced in February.  The new service is available on “pre-equipped and pre-conditioned routes” across their footprint and features a flat-rate pricing model.  They plan to add additional routes over time.

Optimum Lightpath’s footprint is the New York metropolitan area, which is the indisputable central hub of the low latency movement these days.  Obviously they aren’t a player in the intercity latency wars such as NY-Chicago.  But these days people are counting the microseconds from Weehawkin to Newark, and the deep regional footprint from their cable origins certainly can’t hurt there.  Their routes tend to follow different paths from most other providers in the region, which allows them to make a pretty good case for diversity.

The company does tend toward smaller customers, which fit better with its parent’s focus.  That’s one reason their footprint has 3800 on-net buildings, far and away the most amongst non-ILEC providers in New York.  This new service however is clearly aimed at much larger enterprises, especially the speed crazed financials.  We can see this move as simply an opportunistic grab at the low latency honeypot, or possibly as part of a larger move up the food chain toward the wholesale marketplace.  I suspect it is the former, but we shall see.

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Categories: Low Latency · Metro fiber