Allied Fiber to construct nationwide dark fiber cable system

MAY 24, 2010 -- Allied Fiber says it has executed definitive agreements with financial partners and several major railroads and right-of-way owners, including Norfolk Southern Railway, to build a new, network-neutral, high-count dark fiber, colocation and wireless tower integrated system. Construction of the first phase linking New York, Chicago, and Ashburn, VA, is already underway and will cost approximately $140 million.

The national project will cover 11,548 route miles over six phases.

Allied Fiber hopes to address the need for increasing national broadband demand by providing access to new dark fiber, colocation facilities and fiber-fed wireless towers on a network-neutral, open-access basis throughout the United States. Potential customers include submarine cable systems, large international and domestic wireline and wireless carriers and network operators, small rural carriers, cooperatives, and cable television companies.

The network services provider 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, Allied Fiber says.

In addition, the Allied Fiber neutral colocation facilities, located approximately every 60 miles along the route, will be designed to accommodate and encourage a multi-tenant interconnection environment integrated with fiber that Allied Fiber asserts does not yet exist in the United States on this scale.

“The name Allied Fiber was chosen to signify a new type of all-access, physical layer network,” says Rory J. Cutaia, executive chairman of Allied Fiber. “This network specifically manages competing systems in a common, carrier-neutral infrastructure offering ownership and management of individual fiber pairs.”

The first phase of the system will provide a combined 648 dark fibers, 19 colocation facilities with more than 700 sq ft, and 300 tower sites integrated into one system. With planned, direct connections to the submarine cable systems linking the Atlantic, Caribbean, Latin American, and Pacific cables, Allied Fiber also plans to provide express routing of traffic through the United States on the latest and most advanced fiber types available. Building new, shortest path, physical duct and fiber routes combined with modern fiber will result in lower latencies as well as higher capacities to be achieved between these points, Allied Fiber adds.

Allied Fiber has selected Michels Communications, a division of Michels Corp.; Henkels & McCoy, Inc.; and Adesta, LLC to construct and install various portions of the system. The entire Phase One deployment is scheduled to be completed by fourth quarter of 2010.

The new 432-count, long-haul cable coupled with the 216-count, short-haul cable will be a composite of singlemode and non-zero dispersion shifted fibers. By having a high-fiber count and being network-neutral, Allied Fiber says it is able to offer dark fiber at lower unit costs.

The company is currently accepting customer agreements for fiber and colocation in the system.

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