Allied Fiber Constructs Dark Fiber Cable System

Allied Fiber has executed definitive agreements with financial partners and several major railroads and right-of-way owners to build a new, network-neutral, high-count dark fiber, colocation and wireless tower integrated system. Construction of the first phase linking New York, NY, Chicago, IL and Ashburn, VA is already underway and will cost approximately $140 million.

The user community for these physical-layer services ranges from and includes submarine cable systems, large international and domestic wireline and wireless carriers and network operators to small rural carriers, cooperatives and cable TV companies.

"We created this system to address the numerous backhaul and capacity issues that exist in the marketplace today,” said Hunter Newby, CEO of Allied Fiber, in a statement.

Allied Fiber has implemented a new, multi-duct design for intermediate access to the long-haul fiber duct through a parallel short-haul fiber duct all along the route. This enables all points between the major cities, including wireless towers and rural networks, to gain access to the dark fiber. In addition, the Allied Fiber neutral colocation facilities, located approximately every 60 miles along the route, accommodate and encourage a multi-tenant interconnection environment integrated with fiber.

The first phase of the system will provide a combined 648 dark fibers, 19 700-plus-square-foot colocation facilities and 300 tower sites all integrated into one system from one provider. With planned, direct connections to the submarine cable systems linking the Atlantic, Caribbean, Latin American and Pacific cables, Allied Fiber will also provide express routing of traffic through the United States.

The entire Phase One deployment is scheduled for completion by fourth quarter of 2010.