Fiber infrastructure expansions from Zayo and Southern Telecom are poised to bring better connectivity options to three American markets.
On Dec. 4, Zayo Group Holdings, a publicly traded bandwidth infrastructure provider based in Boulder, Colo., announced an acquisition of IdeaTek Systems.
IdeaTek is a fiber operator based in Buhler, Kansas.
With its acquisition of IdeaTek, Zayo will add 1,800 miles of cabling and 600 cell towers to the firm’s Kansas holdings, which includes the dense metro market in Wichita.
The purchase price has not been disclosed.
Jennifer M. Fritzsche, a senior analyst at Equity Research, said the announcement “is not a big surprise.”
“We expected Zayo to continue to be acquisitive as it builds out its domestic fiber network. We do not that IdeaTek has strong fiber-to-the-tower and small cell initiatives for mobile carriers.”
Fritzsche called investment in small cell by fiber companies “a real and tangible growth opportunity—very much in the early innings.”
Zayo operates in more than 300 markets in the U.S. and Europe. The company also holds 37 carrier-neutral colocation facilities.
Better connectivity is also in the works for the Atlanta, Ga., and Birmingham, Ala., markets.
Atlanta-based Southern Telecom announced an expansion of its dark-fiber network in the two cities.
“Southern Telecom’s dark-fiber network expansion complements our existing network by providing customers with additional diversity and reliability,” the company’s Business Development Manager Barry J. Navarre said.
“We are better able to serve existing and prospective customers in these two fast growing markets.”
Southern Telecom is adding 43 miles of dark fiber cable to its existing network around Atlanta bringing the total to 128 miles supporting 40 buildings.
In Birmingham, the expansion amounts to an additional 127 miles of dark fiber.
Dark fiber essentially refers to cable that has been installed but isn’t active; it’s dark because fiber optics work by sending pulses of light through the cable.
