The route will comprise of more than 200 route miles from Columbus to Wheeling, West Virginia; Washington, Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh. Once completed, customers will benefit from reduced latency on the new route and can connect to Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Chicago via Zayo’s existing fibre network.
“The build is driven by a customer’s need for a physically diverse route from existing providers connecting these two strategic markets,” said Steve Orlando, senior vice president of Central Region at Zayo. “The expansion will provide a superior option for reliable, high-capacity fibre connecting data centres and contact centres in important population centres.”
Zayo chose Columbus due to the strong and diverse base of businesses that span education, technology, education, government, research, fashion, retail, insurance and healthcare. In addition, thanks to its central location and close proximity to major population centres, Columbus and New Albany, Ohio have become key data centre hubs.
In turn, Pittsburgh’s economy has significantly diversified over the last two decades with a growing economy fuelled by manufacturing, healthcare, higher education, tourism, financial markets, banking and technology.
Construction will start this quarter with completion due for some time in 2020.
This news comes as Zayo continues to expand its footprint across the US. Last year it announced two new long-haul routes linking Columbus, Ohio to Ashburn, Virginia, and another connecting Dallas, Texas with Atlanta, Georgia. In June, it confirmed the expansion of its fibre network in Ohio to support enterprise and mobile carrier customers.
Last month, Zayo was been selected by Mid-Atlantic Crossroads (MAX) to provide data centre colocation and fibre connectivity services. Under the terms of the agreement, Max will be collocated at Zayo’s zColo Ashburn facility and will deliver fibre connections to support Max’s network services to its academic, research, government, scientific and business communities.
