The company believes its assets in Europe can prove beneficial to the carrier community, and plans to establish Zayo’s brand name and reputation firmly in the European carrier market.
“AboveNet has traditionally had a stronger sales focus on enterprise, and we are here to reinforce the message to the carrier community to think of the former AboveNet/Zayo now here in Europe as being able to provide service for carriers,” said David Howson, president of sales and customer management at Zayo Group.
According to Howson, Zayo can position itself as an “alternate new provider” in Europe, stating that it has a very dense network in London as well as a broad footprint in the US: “I don’t think the depth we have in the London market is well understood by European carriers. There is certainly opportunity to expand the number of carriers we sell to,” he said.
The company has also developed a strong focus on dark fibre: “Our ability to want and sell dark fibre is important,” he added.
Zayo completed its acquisition of AboveNet in early July of this year, while plans to integrate the two companies have been ongoing since the acquisition was announced on March 19.
The integration process was described as “substantially complete” by the company’s senior vice president, Stephanie Copeland, who was appointed in June to help oversee its European operations.
“All back office systems are integrated together, the organisation is together. We still have some billing integration to do but other than that we are substantially complete,” she said.
In the last five years, Zayo has made over 20 acquisitions in the North American market. It operates in 45 states in the US and seven countries across North America and Europe with a network spanning over 61,000-route miles with 4.6 million miles of fibre, supporting approximately 9,000 buildings including major data centres, enterprise buildings and cellular towers.
Asked whether Zayo will pursue its strong focus on M&A activity in Europe, Copeland said the company must first develop a stronger understanding of its business in the region.
“It is safe to say that M&A activity will continue within the Zayo Group as a whole, but in Europe we want to make sure we understand all the dimensions of the business first before we pursue any M&A,” said Copeland. She estimated this could be in the first half of 2013.
