Business services provider Birch Communications, Inc. says it added 130,000 buildings to its metro fiber-optic network during the first quarter of 2016. The expansion brings Birch past the 550,000 building mark, with a goal of connecting 1 million buildings by the end of the year.
"Our ability to reach an additional 130,000 buildings via Metro-Fiber is a huge milestone for Birch," said Tom Stachowiak, the service provider's CTO. "Delivering high-performance fiber and network services to our customers that ultimately make it easier for them to work in the cloud, upload and download large multimedia files, and stream video content is essential, and we will continue to invest in expanding our network reach so that customers can activate our dedicated, high-speed Internet services."
The new footprint is part of an aggressive expansion program (see, for example, "Birch Communications significantly expands metro fiber-optic network footprint"). The metro infrastructure that supports the company's BirchLink Metro-Fiber connectivity offering as well as its Metro-Ethernet services is part of an overall IP-based fiber cable network that spans 65 major markets across North America. The company's infrastructure comprises 32,000 route-miles (51,500 km) of fiber and 715 points of presence (PoPs). Birch plans to expand its reach to another 600 central offices throughout the U.S. in the coming months, as well as reach more network interconnection agreements with additional carriers.
"Our growth into key markets this past couple of quarters is driven by solid demand for high-speed broadband connectivity and a desire to bring more affordable pricing options to our new and existing customers," said David Gibson, Birch's vice president of business development. "We're pleased to be delivering premier, enterprise-grade network services that deliver Internet connections with speeds up to 1 Gbps to meet and exceed connectivity requirements for voice, data, video, and cloud application traffic.
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