Lightower to Expand Fiber Network in Washington D.C. and Virginia

BOXBOROUGH, MA — Lightower Fiber Networks, a provider of custom, high-capacity fiber network services, announced a major 1,500-mile expansion of its high-performance fiber, network throughout Virginia and the Washington, D.C. metro region, as part of Lightower’s on-going expansion strategy. In May 2012, Lightower began constructing over 1,100 route miles of high fiber-count network blanketing most of Virginia and into North Carolina. Additionally, Lightower is announcing the addition of almost 400 route miles in the Washington, D.C. metro region, including parts of northern Virginia and southern Maryland. Combining this new network with the existing network in the area, Lightower enhances its position as a major service provider in the region. Lightower will rapidly deploy this expansion and start bringing customers online in the fall of 2013. As part of this expansion, Lightower is also investing in expanded sales and support staffs for the region.

The large-scale expansion of Lightower’s network in Washington, D.C., Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina addresses the surging demand in the region for high-performance networking solutions from area enterprises, educational institutions, as well as government and military agencies. The expansion also adds all-fiber connectivity to area data centers, including those in Ashburn, Culpepper, Richmond and Washington, D.C., which offer critical connectivity points for government applications, cloud and content distribution and area technology companies. Customers in the expansion areas gain access to all of Lightower’s existing 20,000+ miles of network and 7,500+ service locations throughout the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast and Chicago area.

Of particular value to customers in the new expansion areas is Lightower’s unique route between Washington, D.C. and New York that is geographically diverse from the I-95 corridor. Lightower is the only provider to offer such a diverse option to customers.

Cities and towns along the Lightower Network expansion include:

• Washington, D.C.


• Bethesda, MD


• Silver Spring, MD


• Arlington, VA


• Alexandria, VA


• Richmond, VA


• Reston, VA


• Herndon, VA


• Ashburn, VA


• Newport News, VA


• Fredericksburg, VA


• Elizabeth City, NC

Lightower’s complete suite of all-fiber solutions is available to customers in these expansion areas. Lightower’s high-performance services include:

• Ethernet service from 10 Mbps to 100 Gbps


• Wavelength service from 1 Gbps to 100 Gbps


• Dedicated Internet access to 10 Gbps


• Dark fiber


• Ultra-low latency solutions


• Data Center and Cloud connectivity solutions


• Video transport solutions


• Private network solutions


• Wireless backhaul solutions


• Access to all the 7,500+ Lightower service locations throughout the Northeast, including commercial buildings, data centers, financial exchanges, telco hotels and other critical interconnection facilities.

Lightower has expanded rapidly over the past five years throughout the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast and Greater Chicago region. During that time, Lightower has successfully closed and integrated seven acquisitions to complement its strong organic growth. Earlier this year, Lightower closed a merger with Sidera Networks, which doubled the size of the company and the Lightower Network. Lightower has also successfully acquired and integrated Veroxity in Boston, Lexent in New York City, Open Access on Long Island, KeySpan Communications in New York, Hudson Valley Datanet in Newburgh NY and National Grid Wireless in New England.