Metro Bytes: Windstream, Lightpath, Zito, Zayo

Here’s a set of quick takes on a few items of interest in the metro and regional fiber world:

Windstream’s ongoing expansion of its transport network went on the road to the southern tip of Texas yesterday. The company is deploying 100G DWDM down into McAllen Data Center in, you guessed it, the city of McAllen. Much of Windstream’s Texas fiber derives from the assets of McLeodUSA, which they acquired as part of the purchase of PAETEC. Of course, CS&L actually owns that fiber since Windstream spun off the fiber REIT, but that arrangement seems to have emboldened Windstream to take better advantage of its fiber inventory.

Lightpath continued to tack on more business from the education vertical this week. Yesterday the Cablevision subsidiary announced they will be implementing a 1,000-seat cloud-based voice system for Sarah Lawrence College, already a customer for raw bandwidth. The Westchester county-based institution had been trialing Lightpath’s hosted voice one in one department, and apparently liked what it saw — especially relative to the legacy phone system currently in place. With its fiber and Ethernet network already hooking up 7,000+ buildings in the metro area, selling voice into that customer base has been a source of growth.

Zito Media is busy adding some big bandwidth to their network in Pennsylvania. They are deploying gear from Eqkinops to upgrade their main statewide ring to 100G. The Ekinops gear let them move to 100G for significantly less than it would have cost to aggregate a similar amount of 10G circuits, a turning point we have finally surpassed in the 100G deployment cycle it seems. The deployment reaches into all four corners of the state, with nodes in Erie, Stroudsburg, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh as well as points in between.

And Zayo announced a contract with an unnamed multinational bank this week. They have deployed for the institution an ultra-low latency network in New Jersey that connects the NYSE data center in Mahwah, Equinix in Secaucus, and the NASDAQ facility in Carteret with an eye toward financial and trading data. Of course, Zayo has built a lot of fiber in this area in recent years, and this deal therefore has a quick payback as it leverages assets already in the ground for a premium service.

If you haven't already, please take our Reader Survey! Just 3 questions to help us better understand who is reading Telecom Ramblings so we can serve you better!

Categories: Fiber Networks · Metro fiber · Telecom Equipment · VoIP