telecommunications, fiber optics, networking

Lightower Fiber Buying Up East Coast Fiber Networks

Wade Roush 3/10/08

Just last week we told you that Lightower (the former National Grid Wireless) is splitting into two businesses, Lightower Wireless and Lightower Fiber. Turns out the fiber half of the company has been even busier than we thought. In an announcement late last week, Lightower Fiber said it’s acquiring Newburgh, NY-based DataNet Communications, which owns a fiber optic network covering parts of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, as well as KeySpan Communications, which owns a fiber optic network covering Long Island and parts of New York City, with access to transatlantic cables to London and Paris. “By connecting the three networks, Lightower Fiber is able to provide quicker, more flexible, comprehensive dark fiber and Ethernet backhaul services across a larger multi-state territory to wireless and telecommunications carriers, as well as our enterprise customers across the Northeast,” said Rob Shanahan, Lightower Fiber’s CEO.

Wade Roush is Xconomy's chief correspondent. You can e-mail him at wroush@xconomy.com, call him at (617) 252-7323, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/wroush.