First Communications Lights More Fiber

first-communications is lighting more of its dark fiber holdings. The company’s assets include both intercity and metro fiber across the Midwest and the Northeast, including a diverse entrant in the low latency markets between New York and both Chicago and Toronto.  Today’s announcement adds the Chicago to Washington DC route to that list.

First Communications has lit fiber between Pittsburgh and Washington DC, completing that connection to Chicago. They have also lit fiber between Harrisburg, Lancaster, Philadelphia, and Reading, and can now offer lit services to each of those markets. They have more dark fiber out there to light, and have been increasingly aggressive in taking advantage of their assets lately.

Last week, the company’s owner, Gores Group, announced its intent to purchase Alpheus Communications down in Texas, with the possibility of consolidating the two with further M&A probably in the wings. It’s difficult to come up with a short list of possible other targets for Gores that fits perfectly with these two non-overlapping assets. There’s no ideal fit but there are dozens of possible puzzle pieces that make *enough* sense depending on just what they have in mind.  In other words, if they’re serious about buying more fiber perhaps they’d be doing it on the opportunistic Zayo model.

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Categories: Metro fiber