The northeastern fiber operator Lightower Fiber Networks is now not properly called northeastern, having brought fiber to a piece of Dixie. Lightower has completed its 1,100 route mile fiber buildout throughout Virginia and now reaching down into North Carolina.
The project started under Sidera Networks just over two years ago, which Lightower continued enthusiastically after it acquired Sidera a year and a half ago now. The metro DC portion was completed back in April, but now the company’s regional fiber network stretches out to Roanoke and down to Elizabeth City in the northeastern corner of North Carolina.
With this project now complete, the question is where Lightower will turn its expansion interest towards next? Further southward toward Charlotte and Atlanta, or west toward Chicago? Frankly, either way I suspect the next big move for Lightower may be inorganic.
There are several adjacent possible targets, for example Lumos Networks to the west, FirstLight Fiber to the north, and perhaps PalmettoNet to the south. Lightower has been very acquisitive over the years, although not quite as much as Zayo or Level 3. The integration of Sidera seems to have gone well enough, and the time is ripe with Level 3 busy with tw telecom and Zayo basking in its new IPO robes.
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