Allied Fiber has formally launched the buildout of a key piece of the southeastern part of their planned national dark fiber build. The expansion will add about 600 route miles of dark fiber from Miami through Jacksonville and on to Valdosta, where it will hook up with the 150 route miles they’ve already built between Valdosta and and Georgia. The Miami-Atlanta route will tip the scales at 754 route miles in all.
And when I say dark fiber, I mean two ducts filled with 528-count and 216-count fiber for both the short and long haul needs of network operators along the way. That’s been their plan from the beginning, seeking to address the need for dark fiber available for sale. Some still see dark fiber and think glut, but they haven’t been trying to buy the stuff.
Alongside the fiber will be 11 colo facilities, six in Florida and five in Georgia, where network operators will be able to set up shop to actually use the fiber for their own networks. That’s also been a big part of Allied Fiber’s vision of dark fiber as a real estate business.
Allied Fiber had originally planned to start building its national dark fiber footprint with the high traffic NYC-Chicago-Washington-DC triangle using existing empty conduit along the railroads except where unavailable. However, while funding has proved elusive for that buildout, demand from further south gave them the opportunity to supercede those plans.
I doubt they’ve given up on those plans just yet, but perhaps first we’ll see them build north from Atlanta toward Virginia. On that path their planned route was quite unique, avoiding the Carolinas entirely by going through Chattanooga and Knoxville and on through Roanoke.
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Wait, they haven’t built Chicago – NYC\DC yet? I thought they already had anchor tenants? I guess not.