Where the Metro Route Miles Are

While there may be data from a few stragglers still to come in, I have updated my metro fiber and on-net buildings list.  Along with updates from companies already on the list, there were several new arrivals. Domestically, data came in from Litecast in Baltimore and a bit earlier this year from Sunesys.  For the first time I have added data for international metro fiber operators, to the extent that I have initially been able to find data: City Fibre Holdings in the UK, Cogeco and Enmax Envision up in Toronto, and Hutchison Global Network in Hong Kong. I expect further international additions over time (contributions are welcome!).  There remain obvious large missing parties on the list for whom I still lack data:  the cable MSOs and the ILECs.  And there are many smaller providers whom I don’t know or don’t have enough data for.  But in terms of competitive fiber, the overall list has become fairly representative.

The data on my list is presented alphabetically, so in several followup posts I will be sorting portions of the data to see what’s interesting. Today let’s look at something simple:  where the metro route miles are.  It’s a fairly basic question, but in these days of M&A the question of how much metro fiber is out there and in whose hands they are seems like a useful place to start.  Some of the numbers are approximate, especially where there is ambiguity between metro and regional fiber etc.

Unsurprisingly, six of the top ten are the larger publicly traded competitive fiber operators, and a seventh (Sunesys) is owned by one.  Most of the rest and many of those that follow have been mentioned in M&A discussions of late.  It is a bit further down on the list that you start to run into interesting assets that haven’t made it into the headlines yet.

So that’s where the metro fiber is, but the question of where the on-net buildings are is different.  Some of these companies are dark fiber builders, some mainly hook up wholesale sites, while others focus on connecting enterprises and towers en masse.  We’ll look at that tomorrow.  For the full data of course, check the actual metro fiber and on-net buildings list!

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Categories: Metro fiber