Time to catch up in the metro fiber segment, which will bring me back up to date following the tsunami of sector news this week.
Tops on the list is the departure of Zayo Bandwidth’s President and COO John Scarano. Scarano and Caruso go way, way back, through several generations of the bandwidth industry all the way to its first metro fiber play at MFS before it was sold to Worldcom. Citing the end of his original four year contract and an interest in moving to the next phase of his career, Mr. Scarano explained that he most enjoyed ‘building or fixing companies then leading them through the necessary changes where the future is uncertain’ and that Zayo Group (news, filings) has now moved beyond that phase. Nevertheless, the departure seems rather sudden, which has some wondering if there’s more to the story somewhere in there. As for me, I’m curious where he will turn up next, not to mention who Dan Caruso will tap to fill his rather large shoes as the company integrates the AFS assets. Zayo reports earnings late next week.
Down in Georgia, FiberLight (news) won a contract hooking up several of the research facilities of Georgia Tech. The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) and Centennial Research building on the Georgia Tech campus in Atlanta will have direct, low latency high fiber count connectivity to the major carrier hotel at 56 Marietta. The new fiber will ‘dramatically increase the bandwidth of a critical GTRI redundant link at a significant cost savings compared to options previously under consideration’. FiberLight has a 210 mile network in the Atlanta metro area, and has been growing by leaps and bounds in the past few years.
On the financial front, sidera announced that its infrastructure will be powering the National Stock Exchange’s “Exchange in a Box” network solution, which enables firms to quickly cross connect with NSX. Sidera is providing a layer 2 network built over a ROADM-enabled low latency wavelength platform connecting NSX and each of the major financial data centers in the New York Metro area, dubbed NSXDirect. “Exchange in a Box” is quite a name, sounds like something we might be able to pick up on the way home from work. You know, a Christmas present for that special trader in your life… hah!
And last but not least, abvt has embarked on an expansion of its presence in Maryland, between DC and Baltimore. Abovenet has always had a DC Metro presence, but most of it was on the other side of the Patomic River in Northern Virginia. That left a gap between their assets in DC and those up in Baltimore, within which there are many bandwidth-hungry federal agencies and large enterprises. They are therefore planning three new fiber loops in and between the Columbia Gateway, Annapolis Junction and Maryland’s National Business Park. Alongside its expansion into Miami, Denver, and several European markets, Abovenet is busy on multiple fronts right now.
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Also the sudden disappearance of Brad Cheedle from their leadership page at zayo.com…
I wonder if they are paving the way to be bought themselves or something else strategic is going on.