Boxborough, MA-based Lightower Fiber Networks, which owns and operates 4,500 miles of data-transporting fiber stretching from New England to Long Island, said today that it is acquiring Veroxity Technology Partners of Westford, MA. Veroxity operates about 2,000 miles of fiber in New England and New York City. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Lightower Fiber was formed in 2008 from the splitup of National Grid Wireless into Lightower Wireless and Lightower Fiber; it’s been on a buying spree for the past couple of years, also acquiring the fiber assets of companies like DataNet Communications and KeySpan Communications.

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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.

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Last year Boxborough, MA-based National Grid Wireless changed its name to Lightower, reflecting the company’s purchase by M/C Venture Partners and Wachovia Capital Partners. Now it’s going through another transition, splitting its wireless-infrastructure and digital-fiber-optics businesses into two separate entities, Lightower Wireless and Lightower Fiber. Lightower said in an announcement today that demand for its wireless communications towers is growing much faster than demand for its dark fiber network, and that the company needed to bring in a seasoned leader to focus on reviving the fiber business. That person will be Rob Shanahan, co-founder and former CEO of Conversent Communication. Doug Wiest will continue as CEO of Lightower Wireless.

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