The company’s carrier hotel is used by companies from Altice and AT&T to Zayo and ZenFi, but it remains the only such operation in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City with a population of 2.5 million – making it larger than Houston, slightly smaller than Chicago, and twice the size of Dallas.
But DataVerge has huge potential, Newby (pictured) told Capacity. “It needs to be organised and positioned properly and to be promoted. We can do that, as all the ISPs, metros and long-haul providers in Brooklyn have a presence there.”
The DataVerge carrier hotel is based in Industry City, a World War 2-era complex close to Brooklyn Navy Yard that is now used for small businesses such as innovators and designers, as well as restaurants and other leisure venues.
The complex “is second only to the Pentagon” in size, said Newby, naming the vast five-sided office building in Virginia, just outside Washington DC, that is the headquarters of the Department of Defense.
But while north Virginia is home to numerous data centres and other service providers, “Where is Brooklyn served from?” asked Newby.
“The size is impressive but it gets hidden in the shadow of Manhattan. But Industry City has space for enterprise tenants who need fibre connectivity to operate. DataVerge is the official meet-me room for this campus.”
Now on the board, Newby has ambitions for DataVerge. “Is there an opportunity to scale? Yes. That’s something we’re going to explore.” That includes via possible mergers and acquisitions, he told Capacity. “DataVerge has an amazing opportunity. Industry City is a city within a city. It has low hanging fruit.”
There are many parts of Brooklyn with poor connectivity, he said, “some still served by legacy copper”. If this borough of 2.5 million is to upgrade its internet availability, “you can’t do that without a neutral interconnection point”.
