If you thought Allied Fiber was the only new longhaul fiber being put in the ground you may have been mistaken, at least on the New York to Chicago route where according to a recently unveiled website Spread Networks is preparing to go live in July. Thanks to the kind reader who sent that link! But where Allied Fiber did not have financial traders in mind when it was started has national dreams, Spread Networks’ vision begins with and does not yet seem to extend beyond the trading community. The latency they seem to be promising? 13.33ms, over three milliseconds faster than existing routes. How?
Well, I’m still looking for information beyond their website, but I expect a PR blitz is probably in the offing if they’re really going live in July – so we’ll know soon enough. But here is a quick summary:
- Distance: 825 miles, includ
ing slack coils - Route: not limited to traditional railroad rights of way, cutting straight across Pennsylvania – somehow…
- Huts: Every 120km, a bit wider spacing than most networks use.
- Funding: An SEC filing suggested a debt issuance of about $75M, but presumably there must be more to it than that
Behind the new network seem to be some Wall Street heavy hitters, and the chairman is none other than James Barksdale, who was once CEO of Netscape alongside Marc Andreessen not to mention AT&T Wireless. Anyone have any further details?
There have been steady rumors about a stealth fiber build on the NYC-Chicago route. I had thought that the sources derived either from Intellifiber’s announcement or the Allied Fiber build, but if the site is real then Spread Networks was there in the background as well.
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Categories: Fiber optic cable · Low Latency
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Have spoken with Spread and this is real. In the works for two yrs. exciting!
pricing?
I cannot see 13.33ms as being possible at all
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Good news – someone has clearly done their research on this one and delivered something that looks innovative.
Maybe a model for comparable routes elsewhere? Would be very interested to see what the take-up is on this v.s. the costs.
The service is up under 13.3 for about 10M for 5 years
Anybody else have pricing info? Solid?