Spread Networks, LLC announced the launch of a new dark fiber private network with round-trip latency of just 13.33 milliseconds for the 825 mile New York to Chicago route.

This completely new route has been in development for the last three years. The new private network enables Spread Networks customers to achieve “clean speed”, with data running as close as possible to the true speed of light through fiber, since there is no drag from traditional telecommunications offerings.

“Spread Networks has established the competitive standard for trading latency between these two important financial centers,” said Spread Networks CEO David Barksdale. “Financial firms looking for increased bandwidth to move large volumes of data with maximum efficiency will turn to Spread Networks to provide the most efficient, private dark fiber network available today.”

The company made the announcement during the SIFMA conference in New York City. Spread Networks, LLC is a privately owned telecommunications provider based in Ridgeland, Mississippi. The company's management team includes Jim Barksdale, Chairman and President of Barksdale Management Corporation and former CEO of Netscape and AT&T Wireless as Chairman; Dan Spivey, former trader and market maker at CBOE as President and Founder; and Murray White, former Head of Strategy and Business Development for NYSE Technologies, as Executive Vice President, Market Development.

Elizabeth Milard recently posted an interesting article on alternative power sources for data centers on Processor.com. Here are some of the highlights.

"With energy consumption on the rise—and expected to keep growing—data center managers are continually on the lookout for ways to increase efficiency and cut down on power and cooling costs. Although alternative energy strategies such as solar and wind aren’t widespread yet, the move toward green technology could boost adoption rates in the coming years.

“Basically, anything that can offset the use of commercial power and its associated costs is being looked at,” notes Kris Domich, principal consultant at Dimension Data. “The cost to get (to cleaner, greener centers) might be too high for most data centers right now, but it’s likely to come down as the interest keeps growing.”

Research Initiatives

New partnerships, such as the recent agreement between Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory signed with Siemens Energy to provide high-resolution atmospheric modeling capabilities, a strategy that can improve the efficiency of wind farm operations, offers great possibilities.

The laboratory’s modeling will allow for better weather forecasting, which is vital for boosting wind performance, according to Julie Lundquist, a Livermore scientist who heads the project. She notes that the methods they’ve developed for simulating turbulent properties of the lower atmosphere will result in a predictive advantage for wind energy farms.

Hydro power, fuel cells, biomass, and geothermal power sources are also being actively explored. Each has its challenges but also potential. For example, in some smaller-scale applications, fuel cells can be used to replace the traditional battery plant for long-runtime applications. The power density of fuel cell stacks, coupled with very low maintenance and potential tax incentives, have made this power source one worth watching.

Going Alternative

Some medium-sized and larger data centers and colocation facilities have been exploring the use of alternative power. Emerson Network Power opened a new energy-efficient center last year in Missouri, using the state’s largest solar array. When the 35,000-square-foot center went live, it was 31% more efficient than traditional data centers, thanks to the solar technology, precision cooling products, and other efficiency strategies.

When Emerson first decided to build the center, it set out to achieve silver-level certification in LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) but ended up garnering gold-level instead, according to Jack Pouchet, director of energy initiatives at Emerson.

“We also knew the 7,800-square-foot rooftop solar array would contribute a portion of the energy needed to run the data center,” he says. “We purposely oriented the building in such a way and put the array at an angle to the building structure so that we could capture the most amount of sun in the process.” The result, he notes, is that the solar array covers up to 15% of the data center’s load.

The solar array is anchored by a purpose-built super structure that’s on a permanent tilt, with no penetration of the roof over the data center. Pouchet says, “As we were laying this out, we also made certain that we could get to the back side of the panels to wire them.” He added that the building sits back far enough to minimize issues with trees, pollen and leaves, and the amount of rain and slope of the array also work to keep the modules clean.

Looking Ahead

For most data centers, using alternative power doesn’t mean making a clean break with the power company. Instead, this type of power is now being used to increase efficiency and lower consumption costs, and most likely, it will take some time for smaller data centers to implement technologies that harness solar, wind, biomass, and other strategies in a way that’s cost effective.

“Right now, the cost to get in is pretty high,” says Domich. “But most likely, it won’t be like that forever. As more data centers start putting systems in place, and demand increases, hopefully the costs will start coming down.”

Data center provider Digital Realty Trust Inc. said Wednesday it signed a deal to buy a five-property data-center portfolio from joint ventures that are majority-owned by affiliates of Rockwood Capital for $725 million.

The company said the deal gives it properties in California, Arizona and Virginia, totaling about 919,000 square feet. Digital Realty expects to fund the purchase price with available cash, loans and the sale of debt or equity securities. The acquisition is expected to close on or about July 2.

The properties include 365 Main Street in San Francisco, Calif.; 2260 East El Segundo Boulevard in El Segundo, Calif.; 720 2nd Street in Oakland, Calif.; 2121 South Price Road in Chandler, Ariz.; and 4030-4050 Lafayette Center Drive in Chantilly, Va.

NEF Partner American Fiber Systems announced this today:

Optical fiber provider American Fiber Systems (AFS) announced its proposed community broadband project was among the top 10 recommended by the Governors of the State of Kansas and the State of Missouri as a priority project for Round 2 Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) consideration.

The only proposal chosen by both states, AFS's proposed infrastructure spans across both states in the Kansas City metropolitan area.

The $10 million proposed project is classified as "comprehensive community infrastructure" and would establish a broadband network in Platte, Leavenworth, Wyandotte, Johnson, Clay and Jackson counties in both Missouri and Kansas. AFS's community project provides for fiber connectivity to key government locations, public safety facilities, medical campuses, educational (K through 12) locations and libraries in Kansas and Missouri. Additionally, the proposal includes connectivity to Missouri state colleges.

Both states chose their top projects to recommend based on varied criteria, including relevance and effect on telemedicine, distance learning, economic development, e-government and the needs of underserved residents of Kansas and Missouri. Additionally, special emphasis was attached to projects slated for counties in greater need of assistance.

"With 15,264 fiber miles and firsthand knowledge of the Kansas City metropolitan market, AFS is well-positioned to plan and execute this ambitious project," said Rich Coyle, Senior Vice President, Operations, AFS. "This project is so much more than acquiring funding to expand our network. It is about bringing broadband to areas where it hasn't yet been available and enhancing the lives of community members by giving them a more reliable connection to the rest of the world."

RCN Metro, an NEF Partner, announced today that it has teamed with leading Ethernet Exchange Carriers including CENX, Equinix (EQIX), and Neutral Tandem (TNDM) to simplify the delivery of Ethernet services across networks.

RCN Metro Optical Networks is offering its Ethernet services to local, national, and international service providers via Ethernet Exchange Carriers in New York City and Chicago at bandwidths from 1 Mbps to 10 Gbps. Additional regions will be announced throughout the year.

In order to interconnect with carriers today, one-off interconnection agreements need to be negotiated with each carrier. Since Ethernet service delivery standards are not ubiquitously adhered to, carriers are challenged to interconnect without compromising services quality or support. RCN Metro's participation in Ethernet exchanges represents the company's commitment to expanding the distribution of its Ethernet services through these exchanges designed to facilitate these types of interconnections.

Ciena Corporation, an NEF Partner, was proud to make this announcement:

Ciena® Corporation, the network specialist, today announced that Intellifiber Networks has deployed the CN 4200® RS FlexSelect® Advanced Services Platform throughout its core and metro networks. Offering an extensive portfolio of private networks, SONET, wavelength, Ethernet, data and voice services, Intellifiber’s upgraded network leverages the low latency features of the CN 4200 Family to enable resilient, ultra low latency 1G, 2.5G and 10G connections between key financial markets in New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Chicago.

“Ciena’s advanced optical transport technology and managed services experience makes them an ideal partner as we expand services for our service provider and financial services customers with our upgraded network capacity and ultra low latency capabilities,” said Clint Heiden, president, Intellifiber Networks. “From financial transactions to VoIP, video, gaming and other applications driving business today, providing high-capacity links with low latency clearly differentiates us in the major markets and key intermediary points we serve while Ciena’s platforms provide a future-proof path to even higher-speed 40G and 100G connections.”

Featuring a state-of-the-art network spanning 17,000 route miles, Intellifiber sells, installs and maintains high-capacity services for hundreds of enterprise businesses, cable, Internet, wireless, international and regional service providers, as well as federal and state government agencies. As demonstrated by this network upgrade, Intellifiber is committed to providing intelligent, advanced network technology solutions to give its customers a competitive advantage in their markets. Intellifiber has deployed Ciena’s CN 4200 RS platform with ROADM functionality to handle dynamic wavelength routing and bandwidth provisioning across its network as well as an optimized design that helps lower delays in optical connections by up to 20 percent for latency-sensitive applications, such as algorithmic trading.

Ciena’s CN 4200, deployable from customer premises to the metro/regional backbone, is an enhanced optical service delivery platform that offers on-demand programmability and support for any service, any time, anywhere. Its OTN technology “right sizes” capacity to support multiple services on a single wavelength for greater transport efficiency. CN 4200’s unique low latency characteristics including amplification schemes, advanced dispersion compensation and design optimization coupled with the platform's scalability, service enablement, and application awareness make it an ideal solution for high-performance optical networking requirements.

“Latency is the enemy of every network and application so this deployment highlights the investments we’ve made in technology to reduce latency and add value to our CN 4200 platforms,” said Gary B. Smith, Ciena’s president and CEO. “In addition, Intellifiber perfectly fits the profile of a BizConnect partner – a large network footprint, diverse portfolio of services and hyper-focused attention on exceeding customer expectations in the selling, delivery and operation of its managed services.”

NEF Partner Fibertech Networks made the following announcement today:

The continued growth of data transmission, storage and processing is causing demand to outpace the current supply by as much as three times, according to industry analysts. In an effort to meet this demand, Fibertech Networks and Xand Corporation have teamed up to offer 100%, fully resilient fiber optic connectivity to Xand's 30,000 sq. ft., state-of-the-art Westchester County Data Center.

The newly installed Fibertech service at Xand will provide additional capacity, redundancy and resiliency to customers that Xand serves throughout the Connecticut and Westchester County, NY metropolitan area.

"We understand our customers have zero tolerance for downtime. That makes the communications piece a key component in our overall value proposition. The ability for a client to connect to our facility with Fibertech's fast and secure network will make all the difference in delivering a solution that meets today's customers' sophisticated business requirements", said Jim Kramer, Vice President of Sales for Xand Corporation. "The service expansion with Fibertech allows Xand to offer customers options of guaranteed reliability through a world class communications provider."

Fibertech, a leading regional provider of fiber optic bandwidth services, owns and operates a nearly statewide fiber optic network in Connecticut. The network measures more than 2,100 miles reaching into Bridgeport, Hartford, New Haven, New London, Norwalk and Stamford, among others cities. It also connects north from Hartford to Springfield, MA, and Southwest from Stamford into White Plains, NY. In addition, the company recently completed a new metro network in Westchester County, NY, totaling more than 60 miles.

The company can leverage this infrastructure to provide a range of connectivity to area businesses, ranging in speeds from point-to-point and metro multi-point Ethernet service from 10 Mbps to 1 Gbps; OC3 to OC192, in addition to the unlimited bandwidth of dark fiber optics.

"Financial and healthcare institutions, among several other industries, are investing in secure connectivity for their storage, management and processing of digital information," said Michael C. Hurley, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Fibertech. "Through this agreement with Xand, we can provide a fully resilient solution to more than 90% of Connecticut and a significant number of Westchester County, NY, businesses."

Headquartered in Hawthorne, NY, Xand's core business is in delivering Colocation and Enterprise Server hosting, functioning as a production Data Center for many local businesses. In addition, Xand provides hot site, or secondary site services for many firms throughout the region.

Business Continuity sites are established at Xand utilizing server virtualization, sophisticated replication of data, redundant power circuits and diverse connections to the Internet, all to achieve environments with no single points of failure.

Here's the latest news from NEF Parter, AboveNet, Inc.

AboveNet, Inc., a leading provider of high bandwidth connectivity solutions, has launched one of the industry’s fastest, low latency end-to-end transatlantic connections between London and New York, reaching key financial locations in:

Targeted specifically at the financial sector, this new low latency transatlantic service supports critical applications such as foreign exchange trading and market data feeds.  

“With venues such as Chi-X now operating out of Equinix in Slough and NASDAQ operating out of Carteret, New Jersey, we’re seeing a growing requirement for low latency transatlantic connectivity,” said Alan Berryman, Director of Sales and Marketing for AboveNet.  “We’re expecting strong demand for our premium service from organizations such as investment banks, hedge fund operators, as well as foreign exchange and equities traders, because customers can always rely on AboveNet to deliver the low latency performance their business demands.”

This premium service is backed by one of the industry’s strongest SLAs under AboveNet’s Agility Guarantee program.  The program provides guarantees on the transatlantic service by combining one of the shortest transatlantic cable systems with the most direct terrestrial backhaul link into New York and Slough.   In addition, AboveNet also provides latency guarantees for as low as sub-1ms round-trip for access to hundreds of buildings in the New York and London metro markets.

AboveNet Chief Technology Officer, Rajiv Datta, said, “Adding the low latency capability between New York and London is a natural extension of our industry-leading Agility Guarantee program.  In addition, we can now provide high bandwidth connectivity between London and our 16 U.S. markets for a broad range of customer applications.”

Here's a Press Release from NEF Partner, Ciena Corporation

Ciena announced today that AboveNet, a leading provider of high bandwidth connectivity solutions, has deployed Ciena’s 2RS module as part of the service provider’s new Agility Guarantee program.  The CN4200 module helps lower delays in optical connections by up to 20%, helping AboveNet to offers customers high bandwidth connectivity with optimum speed and performance for latency-sensitive applications.

“When tiny fractions of a second can mean the difference in huge amounts of revenue, latency is by far the top priority and key decision criteria for our target customers,” said MaryBeth Nance, Executive Director of Business Development & Marketing at AboveNet, “which is why our fiber-intensive private optical network gives us a huge advantage over competitors that have lots of intermediary routers, switches and other equipment that simply add more latency and potential points of failure to the network.”

AboveNet serves its business and carrier customers over a private fiber optic network that delivers network connectivity and IP services in and among top U.S. metro markets and globally. The company’s private metro optical networks offer a variety of Metro Wave and Metro Ethernet services. With the Agility Guarantee program, AboveNet is now offering its financial services, energy trading, online gaming, and media and entertainment customers a network solution that delivers round-trip latencies as low as sub-1 millisecond for some services. The program uses real-world, round-trip numbers for the end-to-end network – not one-way metrics, averages or SLAs for only part of the network, such as between points of presence.

“AboveNet is a long-time customer that has chosen Ciena to be among the select few vendors to provide equipment to support its network. The deployment of Ciena’s 2RS modules on AboveNet’s base of CN 4200s underscores the ongoing value of that network investment and our mutual goal of enabling high-capacity, low-latency connectivity for end customers,” said Mike Aquino, Senior Vice President of Global Field Operations at Ciena. “The enhanced capabilities of CN 4200 demonstrates our commitment to continued research and development in increasing network capacity and reducing latency from our existing platforms for creating service-driven networks with unparalleled performance.”

Here's a Press Release from NEF Partner, RCN Metro.

RCN Metro Provides Compliance, LP With Dedicated Secure Fiber Connectivity

RCN Metro Adds 1660 L Street NW to Network to Deliver an End-to-End Solution

February 16, 2010:

RCN Metro Optical Networks, a division of RCN Corporation (NASDAQ: RCNI) and a premier provider of fiber optic-based network solutions, announced today that Compliance, LP, one of the largest legal staffing and project management firms in the world, has selected RCN Metro as its primary network services provider.

Compliance, LP is a pioneer in document review and project staging with state-of-the-art project staging centers situated in multiple cities. Their new project staging center at 1660 L Street NW in the heart of Washington's central business district is available 24 hours a day and can accommodate as many as 300 attorneys. The center is the largest of its type in the U.S., and it is equipped with advanced systems and technology capable of retrieving and reviewing millions of pages of electronic documents each day.

"We asked RCN Metro for assistance with installing a unique fiber-based solution that would grant us more control over our network and scale to meet our bandwidth needs," said Ari Perlstein, Compliance's vice president of infrastructure and technology. "Their responsiveness and technology solution has been nothing short of impressive. Compliance is now truly in the driver's seat and can effectively operate on the RCN Metro network."

RCN Metro works with customers to gain an understanding of businesses' networking requirements and designs the needed network architecture. Standard service offerings no longer meet the complex needs of most businesses. RCN Metro has built a unique secure pathway into the 1660 L Street NW office building.

"Washington, D.C. is a key market for RCN Metro and our ability to extend our infrastructure right to a building using unique rights of way differentiates us from other telecom providers and brings tangible security and performance benefits to our customers," said Felipe Alvarez, RCN Metro's president. "RCN Metro was happy to get the call from Compliance and even happier to deliver on a custom networking solution tailored to their specific business needs."

About RCN Metro Optical Networks RCN Metro is a premier provider of high-capacity transport services for carriers as well as large and medium-sized businesses. RCN Metro offers a comprehensive suite of services including: Ethernet, SONET, Wavelength, Video Transport, Internet and more. With a network leveraging unique rights-of-way, spanning from Maine to Virginia and out to Chicago, RCN Metro deploys custom solutions to service providers as well as companies in the finance, hospitality, media, government, health care and education industries. RCN Metro is a wholly owned division of RCN Corporation.

Google started picking up massive amounts of dark fiber back in 2005, but what was it going to do with it? Conspiracy theories abounded over Google’s intended dark fiber use. The one that made the most sense was that Google was preparing additional infrastructure for its own use because it purchased enough dark fiber to provide high-bandwidth connectivity between its data centers. Another possible explanation was that Google was considering creation of a voice network that would help with call quality.

Five years later, we have our answer. Google purchased the dark fiber back in 2005 so that it can provide its own broadband Internet access. The company plans to accept responses to its request for information from communities and municipalities interested in participating in what it calls its “Google Fiber for Communities” venture.

Google claims it will provide 1-gigabit-per-second fiber-to-the-home connections, offering speeds that are 100 times better than that available to most Americans. Its stated purpose is to provide more people the opportunity to achieve greater success that requires faster Internet connections, try new methods for deploying fiber optic networks and to provide and “open access” network that makes multiple service providers available to those seeking high-speed Internet access.

Go faster with broadband. Contact NEF to learn more.

Lexent Metro Connect, a provider of dark fiber networks in the New York metropolitan area, has become part of Switch and Data’s GeoReach program.

As a member of the program, Lexent Metro will provide dark fiber interconnectivity between Switch and Data's North Bergen and 111 Eighth Avenue, New York, colocation sites and other leading New York Metro data centers and financial exchanges. This critical, low-latency interconnectivity provides high performance access for Switch and Data's clients in both facilities.

Switch and Data's GeoReach program is a select group of providers who have engineered their networks to meet the needs of the high-frequency trading community.

“As a partner in our GeoReach program, Lexent’s network provides our customers with high-quality and resilient dark fiber network connectivity to a wide variety of customers in the financial services space,” said John Panzica, vice president of Switch and Data’s financial services practice. Panzica further said that “delivering multiple, robust connectivity options is key for the company’s clients”.

Learn more about what Lexent Metro can do for you. Contact NEF today.

Viewed as the next important step in optical data transport, 40-Gig Ethernet services are now being offered by an increasing number of providers in urban areas around the U.S. Now onboard with this trend is NEF partner Optimum Lightpath, who has recently announced its new offering of 40-Gpbs optical transport.

Optimum Lightpath serves mostly medium-sized and large businesses throughout the greater New York City region. Offered on a flat-rate pricing basis across its service area, the new 40-Gig service is especially well suited for Optimum’s customers, which include financial institutions.

At the core of its fiber-optic network, Optimum Lightpath uses the 7100 series optical transport system from Tellabs. While vendors such as Alcatel-Lucent have recently come out with optical switches that merge packet and optical transport at the lowest possible layer of the network, Rabii said that for now Optimum is sticking with a more traditional IP packet-routing architecture.

Optimum Lightpath has an expansive fiber network in the New York metro area, with more than 3,700 route miles connecting more than 3,500 buildings. Learn more about Optimum Lightpath. Contact NEF today.

Here's a press release from NEF partner, American Fiber Systems.

American Fiber Systems Gives Carson City Long-Awaited High Bandwidth Connectivity Choice

CARSON CITY, NV –02/01/10 — American Fiber Systems (AFS) announced today that it has completed its fiber optic network expansion into Carson City, Nev., to respond to the sustained demand for high bandwidth connectivity from the State of Nevada and area enterprises. The expansion takes the AFS network footprint directly to the front door of all major State of Nevada facilities as well as key Carson City business locations.

Prior to AFS's expansion, state offices and enterprise businesses had few telecommunications options other than the incumbent phone or cable company for high bandwidth service. The new AFS metro network offers a full array of managed services, including Ethernet speeds from 10Mb to 10GB, as well as easily upgradeable bandwidth for businesses seeking ultra-reliable access to the Internet, a more reliable, higher capacity network, and high bandwidth data transport services.

The AFS Carson City network, comprised of 5,600 fiber miles, interconnects Carson City to AFS's 7,300 fiber mile metro network in Reno. Via its Reno facilities, AFS also offers Carson City access to AFS's long haul intercity network between Las Vegas and Reno, Nev.; Boise, Id.; and Salt Lake City, Utah. With the AFS expansion into Carson City, local businesses and government agencies can connect from Carson City to key metro locations in the Western Region.

"Based on our field research several years ago, we understand Carson City business owners' need for high-quality, reliable and secure bandwidth — and for more choice in their telecommunications service," said Rich Coyle, Senior Vice President, Operations, AFS. "We take tremendous pride in providing them this service, and in empowering state organizations, as well as casinos, medical facilities, and other enterprise businesses with safe, secure data transport." The Carson City route is the hub for AFS's Nevada network in their efforts to bring businesses and state government agencies the high-cap connectivity they need. With competitive SLAs and experienced customer support, American Fiber Systems provides some of the finest quality metropolitan networking infrastructure, dark fiber and transport services to carriers and large and mid-sized enterprises in ten markets nationwide.

For more information on AFS's secure, high availability network, responsive services and iron-clad guarantee, contact NEF today.

For the 21st year in a row, Level 3 Communications will provide live compressed and uncompressed high-definition television broadcast video services to CBS for Super Bowl XLIV.

However, different from other years where feed was sent to a production truck, feed will be sent from Miami to CBS studio headquarters in New York via Level 3’s fiber-optic network.

Level 3 expects to acquire, encode and transport over 2,800 hours of video content.

During the 2009 football season, Level 3 worked closely with the league and broadcasters to provide video transmission for every regular season and playoff game, totaling more than 5,600 total feeds.

This season Level 3 also worked with the NFL to create a virtual private network that connects clubhouses and provides league teams with a secure, reliable means of sharing footage from games, interviews, practices and more.

Level 3 is a partner of NEF. Learn more about Level 3 Services. Contact NEF today.

Four broadband stimulus applicants were awarded grants this week. This week’s activity drives the total number of awards to 23 projects totaling $253 million.
Winners include:

Merit Network in Michigan
$33 million to build a 955 mile extension to an existing fiber optic backbone for local research universities to reach low-service areas, enabling broadband access for schools, libraries and health care facilities.

Merit Network is a nonprofit, member-owned organization formed in 1966 to design and implement a computer network between public universities in Michigan. The extended project will link 44 communities covering almost 900,000 households.

MCNC in North Carolina
$28.2 billion (with an addition $11.7 million in matching funds) to build a 494 so-called “middle mile” network that will ultimately pass almost half the state’s population.

MCNC owns and operates the North Carolina Research and Education Network, which was created to bring high-speed broadband internet to state schools, universities and community-anchor institutions. The new network will include new fiber rings and connect to 685 miles of existing infrastructure.

The University of Massachusetts at Lowell
$895,000 for broadband adoption.

Michigan State University
$895,000 for a public computing center.

The grants were made by the US Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration, or NTIA, under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and awarded under the NTIA's Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP).

Last week, the NTIA announced a second round of broadband stimulus applications will be accepted through March 15, 2010, modifying application rules in the process.

Here's a recent press release from NEF partner, Lightower Fiber Networks

BOXBOROUGH, MA — 01/14/10 — Lightower Fiber Networks, a leading metro fiber network and bandwidth service provider serving the northeast United States, announced today that it is expanding its state-of-the-art, all-fiber network in southern New Hampshire. The network expansion will add new routes and fiber density plus connectivity to data centers and business centers.

The New Hampshire network expansion will extend Lightower's network into Salem, Manchester, Merrimack, Nashua, as well as neighboring towns in the southern region of the state. New Hampshire customers will have access to a full suite of Lightower solutions including dark fiber, Ethernet, wavelengths, Internet access, and SONET.

New Hampshire customers will be able to leverage Lightower's high-bandwidth, low-latency solutions to connect with any other area in the Lightower footprint including Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, the Hudson Valley, Long Island, New York City, and New Jersey.

Connecting Financial Exchanges and Data Centers "This network expansion connects customers and critical data facilities in southern New Hampshire with the entire Lightower footprint throughout the Northeast including key inter-connect facilities, financial exchanges, and data centers," explained Doug Dalissandro, EVP of Sales, Lightower Fiber Networks.

Flexible Wireless Backhaul Solutions "This all-fiber network expansion also demonstrates Lightower's on-going commitment to providing flexible backhaul options for wireless carriers," stated Rob Shanahan, CEO, Lightower Fiber Networks. "Our all fiber network allows wireless carriers to leverage dark fiber, wavelengths, Ethernet, and Ethernet-over-SONET for their increasing backhaul bandwidth demands. Lightower can provide one or more of these backhaul options in customized solutions for carriers, and the network can be designed in any topology the carrier needs."

Lightower New Hampshire Network Expansion Highlights include:

• All Lightower services available to on-net buildings and facilities in area towns including Salem, Manchester, Merrimack, and Nashua.
• Dark fiber availability.
• Ethernet service from 10 Mbps to 10 Gbps.
• Wavelength services to 40 Gbps.
• Diverse routing and diverse entrance options may be available.
• Custom designed building access, tower access, and facility access.

Since Lightower owns and operates its own network, including this new network expansion, customers can be assured that they will continue to receive excellent custom solution design and implementation in addition to Lightower's 24×7x365 proactive support.

Lightower specializes in providing customers with a broad range of high bandwidth connectivity services as well as dark fiber and collocation services. With the rapid growth of its customer base and increasing demand for bandwidth, Lightower has upgraded its core network backbone to 40G and is uniquely equipped to provide connectivity services from 1 Mbps to 40 Gbps. Lightower also successfully tested 100G services on its network in late 2009.

About Lightower Fiber Networks Lightower Fiber Networks is a leading fiber network and broadband service provider in the Northeast. Lightower offers over 4,400 fiber route miles with over 1,650 on-net buildings coupled with comprehensive transport and alternative access solutions. Lightower's geographic footprint extends from Boston and southern New Hampshire, to eastern New York State, northern New Jersey, Long Island, and New York City. Lightower uniquely offers customers geographically diverse routing and low latency network solutions on an all-fiber optic network. Lightower Fiber is headquartered in Boxborough, MA.

For more information, contact NEF today.

Louisville Colorado-based Zayo Bandwidth reported a number of key initiatives and milestones for 2009. The regional provider of fiber-based bandwidth infrastructure, and a provider of carrier neutral colocation services announced the following:

• Zayo Group's acquisition of FiberNet Telecom Group led to the addition of important bandwidth infrastructure and customers to Zayo Bandwidth's existing business, and the creation of Zayo Colocation, Inc.
• Zayo Bandwidth added or expanded service offerings materially in Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Ohio, Philadelphia, Tennessee, Texas and Washington.
• Zayo Bandwidth spent approximately $45M on network expansion in CY 2009, adding approximately 400 buildings to its fiber network, bringing total on-net buildings to approximately 2,160.
• Zayo Bandwidth maintained its focus on fiber to the tower expansion, adding over 250 new cellular towers to its network.  Total towers served by year end numbered approximately 850.
• Zayo Bandwidth grew its carrier hotel, data center and central office facilities presence to approximately 150 facilities across their network.

As one of the largest and fastest growing providers of bandwidth infrastructure, Zayo Bandwidth currently boasts a unique 20,000 mile fiber optic network offering services in 131 markets spanning 23 states.

For more information on Zayo Bandwidth, contact NEF today.

A new undersea fiber optic cable will be routed through the Arctic to serve as a connection between Asia and Europe.

Called “The ArcticLink” by the Kodiak-Kenai Cable Company, the project is expected to be completed in 2013 and will enhance global broadband connectivity by providing superior Internet capacity, security and latency compared to existing offerings.

The project is slated to begin construction in 2011. The 10,000-mile undersea fiber optic ArcticLink utilizes a politically stable and secure route running through Japan, the United States, Canada, Greenland, the Arctic region, and the United Kingdom.

The project will also utilize four, 40 gigabit per second subsea fiber pairs, providing four times the existing capacity per wavelength for a combined system capacity of 6.4 terabits per second. It will also have record setting latencies of less than 90 milliseconds. That is nearly a 50 percent reduction compared to today’s preferred Asia-Europe route latency times.

NEF designs solutions based on your needs and specifications using a variety of connectivity options. Creating custom dark fiber networks is one of the strategies NEF employs to bring you the best communications network at the most competitive price. Contact NEF today for more information.

What is VoIP and How Can it Save You Money?

VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, allows you to make telephone calls over the internet.

How Does VoIP Work?

VoIP encodes and compresses the voice signal, and then carries the transmission as packets of data over the internet and decodes it on the other end. With VoIP you can make calls using your existing phones, you can make phone calls directly from your PC, or you can make calls with your Smartphone over the cellular data network.

Is it Hard to Setup VoIP?

Broadband providers like AT&T (Uverse) and Verizon (FiOS) and cable companies like Comcast and Time Warner provide VoIP services over their broadband networks. They do a full-service installation, so if you are not technically inclined, this may be your best option.

Some of the more popular carriers like Skype, Vonage, and Lingo require you to have a broadband connection (cable modem, DSL, or fiber).

How Much Can I Save Using VoIP?

Since VoIP costs providers less to deploy and maintain, the prices are generally much lower than traditional services.

VoIP services have come a long way in a very short period of time. The prices continue to drop as demand increases, and the services and equipment will become even more user friendly over time.

VoIP is great for the budget conscious and people with family and friends scattered over the globe. In the near future we may see VoIP services completely replace traditional phone services.

A new portable fiber optical power meter is now on the market that will help with the installation, calibration and maintenance of telecommunications and CATV networks.

Designed by GAO Tek Inc., the power meter has a self-initiated on-line help function and offers hints or warnings automatically when an operation fails. The optical power meter is equipped with a large graphic LCD screen displaying battery status, operation mode, current selection, a function prompt area and function selection.

NEF can help you locate robust, scalable and affordable dark fiber networks and can add measurable value to an organization's search for connectivity. Contact us today to see if dark fiber is right for you.

2010 is going to see a burst in bandwidth consumption according to TelecomSupperDesk.com. With trends like cloud computing and centralized clouds as well as an increase in customer demand for bandwidth, bandwidth providers are going to have their hands full.

NEF partner, AboveNet, Inc., a provider of high-bandwidth connectivity solutions for business and carriers is just such a company. As an authorized AboveNet agent, TelecomSupportDesk often relies on their fiber optic network. “When a business comes to us looking for high bandwidth from 100Mbps, 1Gpbs even to 10Gbps metro Ethernet solutions, chances are high that AboveNet is the right solution for them,” Mr. Wind (VP of Sales at TelecomSupportdesk.com) comments. “Especially the extreme low latency fiber optics (as low as 1 ms both ways) between two locations is why AboveNet often wins the deal. A low latency route can be extremely crucial for financial institutions as a change in milliseconds can often mean losses of millions in financial trades or transactions.”

What else makes AboveNet a strong competitor in the bandwidth market?

• Are in more markets
• Can easily add more fiber
• Have a better type of fiber
• Have an excellent presence in central business districts out to the far suburbs
• Are in 15 metro markets
• Are focused primarily on fiber optical networks
• Have unique rights of way
• Have buried the vast majority of our fiber for safety

For more information about AboveNet’s fiber optic high bandwidth solutions, contact NEF today.

The National Telecommunications Cooperative Association (NTCE) has recently conducted a survey that found that small rural communication providers are quickly deploying large amounts of fiber, helping to bring faster high speed broadband to America’s rural communities.

The survey found that nearly three-quarters (73%) of respondents with a fiber deployment strategy intend to offer fiber to the node to more than 75% of their customer base by 2011. Fifty-five percent plan to offer fiber to the home to more than half their customers. In that same time frame, the deployment has more than doubled from just 26% last year.

Thanks to such efforts, rural areas are no longer being left behind. Their faster broadband speeds are due to the increased fiber availability. Fifty-three percent of respondents indicated their customers can now receive broadband service of between 3 and 6 Mbps (up from 46% last year), and 39% can receive service in excess of 6 Mbps-an increase from just 25% one year ago. Survey respondents indicated an increase in take rates for the higher broadband speed tiers as well.

Get the dark fiber you need with NEF. Contact us today.

Vice President Joe Biden today announced the first $182 million in federal stimulus money for 18 projects to expand high-speed Internet networks in rural areas and other underserved communities.

The projects are the first part of a $7.2 billion plan to bring high-speed Internet connections to rural areas, poor neighborhoods and Native American communities.

The first set of projects will take place in Georgia, Maine, New Hampshire, Ohio, Arizona and Alaska. The Obama administration hopes that such an expansion could help smaller businesses compete globally as well as contribute to the future success of the country's manufacturing industry and middle class.

Congress included $7.2 billion for broadband projects in the stimulus bill to create jobs and bring new economic opportunities to parts of the country left behind in today's digital age.

Demand for the broadband money has been intense — far outstripping the amount of federal dollars available. The Commerce and Agriculture Departments received nearly 2,200 applications submitted by local governments, inner-city community groups, rural cooperatives, non-profits and for-profit corporations in every corner of the country. They asked for a total of $28 billion to pay for fiber-optic lines, wireless clouds, computer labs, Internet training programs, municipal communications networks and a range of other projects to bridge the so-called digital divide.

Yesterday, NEF partner Lightower, posted a pres release about a new colocation facility in Mass. Here it is…

Lightower Expanding Collocation Facility in Marlborough, MA 5,000 Square Foot Facility Offers Strategic Location Plus Networking Options

BOXBOROUGH, MA – Lightower Fiber Networks, a leading metro fiber network, bandwidth, and collocation service provider serving the northeast United States, announced today that it is expanding its collocation center at 34 St. Martin Drive, in Marlborough, MA.

Strategically located in Boston’s western suburbs, near the intersection of I-90 and I-495, Lightower’s Marlborough facility offers customers hybrid-class collocation space with amenities such as AC or DC power, generator or UPS backup power, state-of-the-art HVAC, a loading dock, 30 foot ceilings, and security.

“Marlborough is a perfect location for companies looking to collocate near Boston.  Not only does Lightower offer the collo space at 34 St. Martin, but we also offer fiber access directly to Boston, the greater Boston area, the rest of New England, and down the coast to New York City and New Jersey,” explained Herb Boynton, VP of Sales, Lightower Fiber Networks.

Collocation customers at 34 St. Martin Drive have access to a complete suite of Lightower networking services including Ethernet, dark fiber, wavelengths, Internet access, and SONET.  Networking services can be custom designed for customers in bandwidths ranging from 10 Mbps all the way up to 40 Gbps.

With Lightower’s dense network in the Boston area, 34 St. Martin collocation customers can also easily connect to any of the other important regional facilities including 1 Summer Street, 109 Brookline Avenue, 500 Rutherford Street, 300 Bent Street, 50 & 70 Innerbelt Road, 400 Minuteman Drive, 250 Locke Drive, and 1 Federal Street.

About Lightower Fiber Networks Lightower Fiber Networks is a leading fiber network and broadband service provider in the Northeast.  Lightower offers over 4,400 fiber route miles with over 1,630 on-net buildings coupled with comprehensive transport and alternative access solutions. Lightower’s geographic footprint extends from Boston and southern New Hampshire, to eastern New York State, northern New Jersey, Long Island, and New York City.  Lightower uniquely offers customers geographically diverse routing and low latency network solutions on an all-fiber optic network.  Lightower Fiber is headquartered in Boxborough, MA.  Contact NEF to learn more.

Next Generation Radiology, a provider of diagnostic radiology services needed new bandwidth so they could offer their patients advanced healthcare services. Who did they choose to achieve this? NEF partner Optimum Lightpath was the right choice for them.

Next Generation Radiology wanted to simplify business processes and improve patient care efficiencies while adding the bandwidth necessary to power its national medical university network. The company has replaced three T1s at each of its four locations in Long Island, New York, and its 1.5-Mbps Internet access line, with one Optimum Lightpath Internet and voice connection and one Optimum Lightpath Intranet connection at each site. As a result, Next Generation Radiology doubled its bandwidth, allowing it to host multiple Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) that enable consultations with leading experts from the nation’s best medical universities and the freedom to have referring physicians with their own modalities send images to Next Generation for quick and timely reads by Next Generation’s renowned group of radiologists.

About Optimum Lightpath

Optimum Lightpath, is an industry leader in providing advanced Ethernet-based data, Internet, voice, video transport solutions and managed services to businesses across the New York metropolitan area. Optimum Lightpath’s Network is a highly reliable, resilient, and scalable fiber-to-the-business-premises network extending more than 3,700 route miles connecting more than 3,500 buildings. Learn more about Optimum Lightpath. Contact NEF today.

XO Communications, a leading nationwide provider of advanced communications services and solutions for businesses, enterprises, governments, carriers and service providers has announced  that Robert Geller, chief information officer (CIO), was named a 2010 Premier 100 IT Leader by Computerworld.

This year's Premier 100 spotlights 100 leaders from both the technology and business sides of companies that have demonstrated exceptional technology leadership, deployed innovative solutions to address business challenges and implemented strategic IT initiatives.

Geller oversees all of XO Communications' IT operations and initiatives, including managing more than 400 IT professionals. His recent achievements include leading XO's IT team through a successful transformation from a traditional voice provider to one focused on data and IP services.

Aided by Geller's continued leadership and vision, XO Communications has since launched dozens of IP products, averaging approximately six to nine months to create, test and deploy each new product, a pace that far exceeds the industry standard of 12 months.

Learn more about XO Communications. Contact NEF today.

FiberLight announced today that Applied Innovations, a Microsoft Gold Certified Provider of web hosting applications, has signed a multi-year agreement to purchase a secure network connecting Applied Innovations to two state-of-the-art colocation facilities in downtown Miami.

As a leading optical transport network solutions provider, FiberLight will provide a diverse path Ethernet network to connect Applied Innovations to the Telefonica KeyCenter and the NAP of the Americas. The protected, point-to-point dedicated network will enable Applied Technologies to fully support its clients while continuing to grow its presence in the South Florida region.

FiberLight will leverage the strength of its 500,000-fiber mile network and its robust metro network footprint to offer companies fully managed solutions and excellent service before and after the sale. Its dense and robust 300-mile South Florida network made it the logical provider of choice for Applied Innovations.

About FiberLight FiberLight provides Ethernet, Wavelengths, IP, SONET, and Dark Fiber optical transport network solutions to telecom carriers, government, large enterprise, content providers and web centric businesses.

Contact NEF to learn more about FiberLight and other great Ethernet network partners.

Zayo Bandwidth, a regional provider of fiber-based bandwidth infrastructure solutions for carrier, enterprise and government customers, announced that it has committed $65 million in its capital expenditure program for FY 2010. Allocated funds will be used for the expansion of Zayo's fiber networks and service capabilities in support of customer driven solutions.

Zayo spent $45 million in FY 2009 on network expansion and added over 400 buildings across its dense fiber footprint. 75% of that capital expense was deployed in direct support of customer bandwidth requirements.

Their new capital program will ensure that it can continue to add strategic buildings and extend network capabilities for its customers in the coming year. Expansion is anticipated in: Tier 3-5 markets, Wireless Towers and Mobile Switching Centers, Mission Critical Data Centers, and Media Hubs to enable transport connectivity back to major carrier hubs and internet backbone on-ramps in major metro areas for customers across the U.S.

About Zayo Bandwidth Zayo Bandwidth, a wholly owned subsidiary of Zayo Group, owns and operates fiber optic networks totaling almost 19,000 fiber route miles. Zayo Bandwidth offers services in 131 markets spanning 23 states. Zayo Bandwidth's mission is to provide responsive bandwidth infrastructure solutions and a strong and growing network.

American Fiber Systems, a provider of metropolitan fiber optical networking infrastructure, dark fiber and Ethernet transport services to carriers and large enterprises is now the most ubiquitous competitive access provider in Las Vegas.

The expert in providing connectivity for the gaming industry, large municipalities and businesses with bandwidth needs has recently extended its services into eight high-profile casino and gaming locations.

The company's local network is strategically positioned to serve properties along the Strip as well as downtown Las Vegas and all key metro areas. AFS's intercity long haul network ring connects Las Vegas with Reno, Salt Lake City, UT and Boise, ID as a means to ultra-fast, easily upgradeable internet connectivity to remote locations and data centers.

A significant portion of AFS’s network is located in "Power Zones," which are underground and above-ground areas that take advantage of the lowest physical routes and highest steel transmission poles. This network design means that businesses on the AFS network receive the most secure and reliable fiber optic network in the Las Vegas market.

About American Fiber Systems American Fiber Systems (AFS) provides metropolitan fiber optical networking infrastructure, dark fiber and Ethernet transport services to carriers and large enterprises. AFS enables its customers to easily and reliably connect to a city's most important points of communications presence; Internet Service Provider (ISP) and data center locations; Inter-exchange "carrier-hotels;" wireless providers and Fortune 1000 companies.

Contact NEF today to learn more about American Fiber Systems as well as other NEF partners.

Here’s a great article from TelephonyOnline. Is community-owned fiber going to be the new model for improving home-based communications?

Utah’s Utopia moves forward with user-owned fiber November 16th, 2009 by Ed Gubbins

Utah’s multicity public fiber network, Utopia, is moving forward with a new model in which individual users pay the cost of connecting their homes with fiber.

Late last week, the Brigham City Council approved a $5.5-million plan to extend the wholesale fiber network throughout its streets. The city itself is putting up just $655,384 of that cost, while business and residential customers who want fiber are putting up the rest.

Already more than 1600 individuals have agreed to pay $3000 each for their own fiber-to-the-home, the Cache Valley Daily reports. The city is allowing homeowners to spread that payment out over 20 years, to just $25 a month. The city gets a lien on the property in such cases and also reaps the economic-development benefits of city-wide fiber deployment without having to take on enormous loads of debt up front.

The move is just the latest strategic shift for Utopia. In 2008, after struggling with financial and operational shortcomings, Utopia’s new management shed its original commitment to simultaneous ubiquity in favor of building out first to the most lucrative areas (e.g., office parks). Along the way, the ambitious project illustrated the challenges inherent in the wholesale-only public fiber access model

Coudersport's Zito Media Communications is on a mission to spread vast rings of fiber optic lines in Warren County, Pennsylvania, starting with a sprawling loop that will hook the area to a long haul pipeline. That loop, in turn, will be broken down into localized metro rings in the county's larger communities.

The rings, which are optic fiber laid out in giant connected loops made to ensure redundant and fail safe service, will be able to provide everything from affordable ultra high speed Internet connections to businesses to digital PBX telephone services that will eliminate long distance charges.

The addition of fiber optic rings makes this Pennsylvania County a great place for emergency services, government agencies and law enforcement, many of which are planning on building or transferring their hubs here.

In addition, the fiber optic rings being constructed in Warren County and neighboring counties will help cut the huge cost normally created by the Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) required by the state.

Get the fiber optic rings your community or business needs with NEF. Contact us today to learn more.

RCN Metro Optical Networks, a premier provider of fiber optic-based network solutions, is reportedly aiding ECHOtrade, a trading firm, with connectivity to major financial exchanges and the Internet.

ECHOtrade, a professional trading firm providing reliable software geared towards speed of execution, lower cost transactions and higher payouts will benefit from the use of RCN Metro’s colocation services and multiple circuits for connectivity to financial exchange.

This is a great move from ECHOtrade, a company committed to providing traders with the most reliable, dense, high-capacity network available today and one designed to meet their needs tomorrow.

In a recent press release, Felipe Alvarez president of RCN Metro, said "There's no question that in the financial services industry, time is money. Network connectivity is a trading firm's critical lifeline — ensuring a high degree of network availability and resiliency is paramount among key decision makers.”

RCN Metro boasts an extensive bouquet of services including Ethernet, SONET, wavelength, video transport, Internet and more. The company’s high-capacity Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) provides affordable, fully redundant bandwidth solutions to customers across geographically diverse fiber routes. SONET, when combined with RCN’s Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM) services, offer capacity ideal for the densest telecommunications markets. Through its secure, unique rights-of-way, RCN also provides superior system integrity and convenient access to practically any building.

Learn more about RCNmetro and what they can do for you at NEF. Contact NEF to learn more.

Lexent Metro Connect, the leading provider of dark fiber networks in the New York Metropolitan area, and Equinix, Inc., a provider of global data center services, has announced that Lexent has completed its ultra low latency dark fiber connection between two Equinix International Business Exchange (IBX(r)) data centers in Secaucus, NJ and strategic carrier hotels located in Manhattan, including 60 Hudson Street, 32 Avenue of the America, 75 Broad Street and 111 Eighth Avenue.

The new dark fiber route follows the shortest distance across the Hudson River, offering the lowest latency fiber path between Manhattan and Equinix’s NY4 and NY2 centers in Secaucus. With a route latency of less than 100 microseconds, this new link will enable global banks, financial exchanges and other enterprises, located in the 100+ Lexent on-net buildings or along the Lexent fiber optic backbone, to link with the Equinix Financial eXchange community of execution venues, buy and sell side firms, market data providers and technology utilities operating within the NY4 and NY2 centers. These companies operate at Equinix’s high performance data centers to access the widest choice of low-latency networks and to directly exchange data with strategic partners and customers in close proximity.

Learn more about Lexent Metro from NEF, the place to go for dark fiber.

Dark fiber has helped hundreds of businesses, health care facilities and research institutions accomplish data transfer goals in a timely fashion unimagined just 20 years ago. Now Arizona State University joins the list of those that have greatly benefited from the use of dark fiber. In the case of this southwestern university and a genetics research institute 10 miles away, it means the difference between 7 days of data transfer using copper wire, and less than one hour using dark fiber.

The Translational Genomics Research Institute  is host to a new supercomputer used for DNA simulations, which, on a typical DNA simulation produces about 7 TB worth of data. Using their current interconnect speed over the 10 mile run at approximately 100 Mbps, it takes seven days to transmit run data to the analysis location on campus.

Obsidian Strategics is being tapped to create the massively parallel fiber optics interconnect based on InfiniBand technology. When completed and the dark fiber illuminates, the new communications system will rival any other U.S. university, transmitting data at 17.8 Gbps over the full 10 miles – a speed about 192x faster than today's copper.

Once completed, the same 7 TB of data will be transmitted between TGen and ASU over parallel fiber in only 52.5 minutes. ASU and Obsidian will continue the expansion effort, joining forces with other universities to create a high-speed, multi-state network.

Get the speed you need with dark fiber. Contact NEF today to learn more.

Positive reports have come out of Allied Fiber regarding their proposed Chicago-New York low latency route. Several independent optical equipement manufacturers have created theoretical network designs that achieve sub 16ms RTD.

Allied Fiber has two major construction projects to complete the duct system for Phase 1. Phase 1 connects Chicago to New York and New York to Ashburn VA.
Successfully completed in September, Project #1 is a 20 mile conduit build in Chicago to complete the conduit path from 350 E Cermak to the existing duct system. 
Project # 2 is a 143 mile conduit build to connect Harrisburg, PA to Manville, PA which was started last week and should be completed within five months.
The entire Phase 1 initiative is expected to be completed in early summer, and routes will be activated as they are completed. For example, Chicago to NY/NJ might be completed and operational before NY to DC.

For more information on Allied Fiber or to reserve network connectivity on their routes, please contact NEF.

In the world of enterprise connectivity and colocation, we all know that fast is getting faster, and the lowest latency networks are winning the race. Always keeping you one step ahead, NEF is offering bandwidth availability on new routes from Chicago to NY and Chicago to Ashburn at incredible speeds.

In particular, we’re proud of this new route from Chicago to Ashburn that spans approximately 915 optical miles, beginning at 350 E. Cermak in Chicago and ending at 21715 Filigree Court in Ashburn, VA. It tests at 15.5ms RTD which makes it one of the lowest latency routes available and it is fully customizable to your needs, offering service at 100M Fast-E, 150M GbE, 1G GbE and 2.5G. We are committed to providing installation within 30 days and we stand behind our route with a proof-positive service level agreement—if you don’t like, you don’t have to keep it.

Ashburn has become one of the hottest locations as a major East Coast traffic exchange hub due to its strategic location just 30 minutes west of Washington DC. Ashburn colo campuses are continually growing and undergoing expansion in order to keep up with the growing demand. Ashburn, VA, is also home to giants AOL and Verizon.

Specifically, the Equinix facility at 21715 Filigree Court is 461,700 square feet and situated on a 32.6 acre campus. It is the first IBX center opened by Equinix, the DC1 IBX and it offers customer state-of-the-art technology and high-quality connectivity. Much like you’d expect from a global leader, the Equinix Filigree campus offers a full range of premium interconnection, colocation and support services.

By working with industry leading data centers such as Equinix as well as numerous carriers, we are able to provide our customers with the fastest and most reliable routes and end-to-end networks. Please contact NEF today to discuss your needs and how we can make your fast even faster.

A press release from NEF partner, Lightower.

Lightower to Present on Packet Optical Network Integration & Any-Service-to-Anywhere Solutions

BOXBOROUGH, MA–(Marketwire – October 27, 2009) – Lightower Fiber Networks, a leading metro fiber network and bandwidth service provider serving the northeast United States, will be presenting and exhibiting at the Light Reading Ethernet Expo 2009 in New York City from November 3rd through November 4th. Lightower's presentation will be on Wednesday, November 4th at 3:30pm.

"Lightower began as three different companies with three different fiber networks. Integrating these networks into one, seamless packet optical network presented a lot of challenges," said Alex Latzko, Lightower Senior Network Architect.

Alex will be delivering a presentation on how Lightower successfully integrated the three geographically diverse optical networks into one, unified, multi-service packet platform.

"Today Lightower can offer any-service-to-anywhere in our footprint. In addition, our architecture and our utility rights-of-way allow us to offer ultra low latency solutions with geographic diversity from our competitors."

Lightower specializes in providing customers with a wide range of custom built, high bandwidth networking services including Ethernet, wavelengths, IP, SONET, and dark fiber. With the rapid growth of its customer base and increasing demand for bandwidth, Lightower has upgraded its core network backbone to 40G and is uniquely equipped to provide connectivity services from 10 Mbps to 40 Gbps. In addition, Lightower's network is also 100G ready.

Ethernet Expo 2009 is the premier event covering the hot topic of carrier Ethernet network technologies and services in North America. Light Reading's ninth Ethernet Expo, this year's event in New York City will assemble dozens of experts from the service provider, supplier, and analyst communities to explore the hottest trends and paint a roadmap for where Ethernet is likely to take us through the rest of this decade.

About Lightower Fiber Networks
Lightower Fiber Networks is a leading fiber network and broadband service provider in the Northeast, offering over 4,300 fiber route miles coupled with comprehensive transport and alternative access services. Lightower's geographic footprint extends from Boston and southern New Hampshire, to eastern New York State, New York City, northern New Jersey, and Long Island. Lightower uniquely offers customers geographically diverse routing and low latency network solutions on an all-fiber optic network. Lightower Fiber is headquartered in Boxborough, MA. For more information about Lightower services, contact NEF today.

What's the difference?

Fiber Route Miles: Fiber Route Miles are measured by the conduit length.  A conduit can have 12  – 1024 fiber strands inside it.  If you own 2 strands of fiber inside a conduit, you own zero fiber route miles.  The owner of the conduit owns the route miles.

Fiber miles: Fiber Miles are measured by taking the number of strands in a fiber conduit and multiplying that number by the route distance of the conduit.  For example, a 10 miles of conduit with 144 fiber strands = 1,440 fiber miles.

Get the Fiber Route Miles you need with NEF. Contact us today to learn more.

A press release from NEF partner, RCN Metro.

HERNDON, VA–(Marketwire – October 20, 2009) – RCN Metro Optical Networks, a division of RCN Corporation (NASDAQ: RCNI) and a premier provider of fiber optic-based network solutions, announced today that it was selected to provide dedicated Internet service to Lombardi & Co. Inc, a leading provider of access and trading technologies and services to institutional investors. RCN Metro will provide dedicated Internet service to Lombardi & Co. Inc. on the floor of a major, New York-based financial exchange as well as to Lombardi's corporate offices in New York, NY.

Lombardi & Co. Inc. provides institutional clients direct access to the trading floor by focusing on state-of-the-art technology and superior customer service. By strategically leveraging high quality technology platforms and providers, Lombardi & Co. Inc. aims to provide the best execution and service while mitigating risks and costs for its clients.

"We selected RCN Metro due to its outstanding reputation for speed, reliability, high-bandwidth solutions, and expertise in serving the financial services industry," said John Song, Director of Technology, Lombardi & Co. Inc. "RCN Metro will provide us optimal TCO, minimal latency, as well as high throughput and availability on the trading floor as well as at our corporate offices."

This announcement comes on the heels of RCN Metro's recent upgrade of the access layer of its Ethernet network to 10 Gigabit include Metro Ethernet-based transport at several key locations. The upgrade has further enhanced RCN Metro's already strong network performance and low levels of latency and provides customers greater scalability, reducing the amount of time needed to increase bandwidth to mere days. This is especially relevant to the financial services industry, which is heavily reliant on timely market data and exchange connectivity. A millisecond improvement in network connectivity can result in a significant competitive advantage for these businesses.

"We are very excited that Lombardi & Co. Inc. selected RCN Metro for their dedicated Internet access," said Felipe Alvarez, President of RCN Metro. "As the provider of choice to the financial services industry, RCN Metro prides itself in its ability to deliver outstanding customer support and best-in-class services via a low latency, fiber-optic based network. We look forward to working with Lombardi & Co. Inc. to deliver services that allow their clients to execute trades quickly and efficiently, giving them the competitive edge they need in this highly competitive marketplace."

About RCN Metro Optical Networks
RCN Metro, is a premier provider of high-capacity transport services for carriers as well as large and medium-sized businesses. RCN Metro offers a comprehensive suite of services including: Ethernet, SONET, Wavelength, Video Transport, Internet and more. With a network leveraging unique rights-of-way, spanning from Maine to Virginia and out to Chicago, RCN Metro deploys custom solutions to service providers as well as companies in the finance, hospitality, media, government, health care and education industries. RCN Metro is a wholly owned division of RCN Corporation.

Local, regional and state governments and groups are converging their efforts to win federal money for broadband expansion. In fact, varies entities, such as colleges, hospitals, libraries, counties and towns, have bonded together in an effort to win federal stimulus awards meant to improve and increase bandwidth. Driven by a need for greater connectivity, many are planning to build and share networks, often in cooperation with the private sector.

 “Most states are looking at internal agencies, higher education, K-20 in some instances, public safety, 911 and police dispatch centers,” said Joel McCamley, senior vice president and division manager of telecommunications and technology services for L. Robert Kimball Associates, which is helping applicants secure stimulus funds. “We can converge a lot of things people are paying for individually today and stretch their dollar.”
   
Because the federal stimulus process favors large projects, many local- and county-level applicants have folded their efforts into state-level proposals. Missouri, for example, is partnering with various public and private entities (including Big River Telephone Company) to present its own proposal. States do play a unique role in the process: They help the feds map broadband coverage; they have the ability to essentially recommend proposals; and stimulus rules require a minimum of one award to be given to each state. In addition, the hurried pace of the stimulus process is pushing many applicants toward their state governments.

Service providers have an important role to play in helping build the last mile, their expertise is needed in tying together services such as telemedicine and public safety over shared networks in a secure, efficient manner. Get the right broadband provider through NEF. Contact us today to learn more.

Fiberlight, a leading provider of optical transport services in 21 metro areas throughout the Southern United States continues to expand its presence by adding fiber inside the D.R. Horton Tower at 301 Commerce Street in Fort Worth, Texas. This makes the 69th building FiberLight has connected in the greater Dallas/Ft Worth market.

Fiberlight is the source for optical transport services in Dallas/Fort Worth now that it runs 350 route miles throughout the market. "We have consistently grown our revenue, profitability and our network both in Dallas/Ft. Worth as well as our 20 additional markets across the country. The 301 Commerce Street location allows FiberLight customers access to Metro Ethernet speeds from 10 MB to 10 Gigs, SONET, Managed Wavelengths and IP connectivity that is built on a fully redundant network architecture. Greater access drives down costs while improving reliability, versus the traditional enterprise offering," said Mike Miller, CEO and Founder of FiberLight. "We welcome the new opportunities this growth in our network represents and remain committed to delivering superior value to our customers."

NEF is a proud partner of Fiberlight. To learn more about Fiberlight services or to connect to Fiberlight dark fiber, contact NEF today.

October 1, 2009—Framingham, Mass.—  Even in a tough economy, businesses are increasingly in need of connectivity for data traffic and new bandwidth-intensive applications. Framingham-based telecom company New England Fiber, Inc. (NEF), is answering the demand for bigger, more robust communications networks and announced today that it has hired telecom relationship-building specialist Mike Spieldenner as the new Vice President of Business Development. NEF is a leading resource for high capacity networks, dark fiber, colocation and procurement services and consulting.

Spieldenner brings over 20 years of experience in the telecom industry with senior management roles in operations, engineering, and business development for companies such as RCN, Yipes Enterprise Services, Teligent, Ram Mobile Data and Skytel.  His recent consulting projects included designing, deploying and selling a new fiber optic network in New York City.  Spieldenner was able to successfully spearhead this initiative and help the company close $3 million in revenue within two months of launch.  His familiarity and expertise extends to the realm of data centers where he recently sourced a new data center site for a Fortune 500 by researching all of the potential facilities, studying the existing fiber infrastructure and negotiating directly with the real estate firms.

NEF will leverage Spieldenner’s breadth of data network experience and knowledge to help the company achieve milestones such as developing new carrier and enterprise business relationships, negotiating contracts with service providers, delivering the highest possible levels of customer support and expanding professional services via FiberLocator.

“After my years of working in both sales and delivery roles, I am excited to join the team at NEF.  Their goals of providing top-notch customer service and utilizing industry leading tools to deliver creative solutions based on real business needs are well-aligned with my personal sales philosophy,” stated Spieldenner.  “If the goals they have laid out before me are any indication, I am looking forward to a very productive and busy tenure with them.”

President of NEF Mike Murphy added, “Adding Mike Spieldenner to our management team really brings depth to our impressive line-up of talented telecom professionals.  We believe our company is only as good our teammates so we are committed to hiring the best and brightest…and, of course, Mike is no exception.”

About NEF
NEF, Inc., is one of the nation’s top telecommunications brokerage and consulting firms, offering a combined 60 years of industry experience and a proven methodology for providing its customers with the best networks, information and pricing available. NEF can provide a broad spectrum of products from dark fiber solutions to high bandwidth, fully managed optical services. Through their many partners and carrier relationships, NEF designs custom connectivity solutions and provides access to over 75 fiber providers throughout the US and EU, 85,000 lit buildings and 1200+ data centers.  For more information, visit www.NEFiber.com.

NEF Partner AboveNet will be delivering mission-critical applications within the City of London through a new partnership with iomart Hosting. The provider of high-bandwidth connectivity has already connected iomart Hosting’s Tier 3 data center to its dedicated fiber network in order to provide customers with high speeds and secure connections to their vital data and applications.

iomart Hosting is one of Europe's largest data center providers, managed hosting, and business continuity services. They specialize in providing highly secure cloud and server hosting services, with redundant power and onsite engineers at the ready 24/7. Through their partnership with AboveNet they can now provide direct, low-latency connectivity across the capital.

AboveNet continues to expand its fiber footprint by connecting to iomart's facility in City Road, which became the latest data center to hook into AboveNet's dark fiber, IP transit, metro, and international Ethernet services. The move is part of AboveNet's investment strategy of connecting to vital locations to support the need for high bandwidth.

NEF is a proud partner of AboveNet. To learn more about AboveNet services or to connect to AboveNet dark fiber, contact NEF today.

Three scientists who created the technology behind digital photography and helped link the world through fiber-optic networks shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in physics Tuesday.

Charles K. Kao was cited for his breakthrough involving the transmission of light in fiber optics while Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith were honored for inventing an imaging semiconductor circuit known as the CCD sensor.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said all three have American citizenship. Kao also holds British citizenship while Boyle is also Canadian.

The award's 10 million kronor ($1.4 million) purse will be split between the three with Kao taking half and Boyle and Smith each getting a fourth. The three also receive a diploma and an invitation to the prize ceremonies in Stockholm on Dec. 10.

Kao, who was born in Shanghai and lives in Britain, was cited for his 1966 discovery that showed how to transmit light over long distances via fiber-optic cables, which became the backbone of modern communication networks that carry phone calls and high-speed Internet data around the world.

Get the fiber optics that suit your telecommunication needs. Contact NEF today to learn more.

ePrescribe, a new initiative between the Iowa Health System and Allscripts, will offer free web-based e-prescribing solutions to physicians throughout Iowa.  ePrescribe Iowa  is a component of HealthNet connect, Iowa Health System's 3,200-mile fiber-optic network that stretches from Denver to Chicago. It is a first step toward a larger goal of implementing connected Electronic Health Records (EHR).

Intended to convert a majority of prescriptions from paper, known to be the cause of costly medical errors, ePrescribe Iowa automates the process of writing prescriptions and transmitting them to pharmacies while alerting physicians to potentially dangerous drug-to-drug interactions, drug allergies, dosage errors and other problems that can occur when writing prescriptions on paper. The stand-alone solution provided by Iowa Health System and Allscripts also provides physicians a simple way to transition from paper medical records to a full Electronic Health Record, software that automates everyday clinical tasks such as ePrescribing and connects physician practices with other key health care stakeholders including insurance companies, laboratories and hospitals.

NEF designs solutions based on your needs and specifications using a variety of connectivity options. Creating custom dark fiber networks is one of the strategies NEF employs to bring you the best communications network at the most competitive price. Contact NEF today for more information.

Next week, we’re taking Miami by storm.  Several members of the NEF team will be traveling to sunny Florida to attend and exhibit at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo.  Put us on your trade show schedule now and get a chance to win the Wii Game System!

The event is devoted to those in the telecom channel biz, including agents, VARs, consultants, systems integrators and wireless dealers, and NEF is excited to introduce new, bigger bandwidth and colo opportunities to the Channel Partners crowd. 

“We feel this conference is a great fit for NEF because it really emphasizes something we’ve placed tremendous importance on from day one—empowering the channel,” says Mike Murphy, President of NEF.  “Our three-pronged channel approach is based on the following: utilizing industry-leading tools to identify opportunities, leveraging our relationships with numerous carriers, and adding value with products and training.  This enables our partner agents to be more profitable and uncover new, larger opportunities from their existing customer communities.  We understand that giving the channel the best tools and entree into high cap and colo deals is a win-win proposition.”

NEF’s booth with be worth the visit, with entertaining activities and cool giveaways – including the Wii Game System – as  well as great information on our agent opportunities.

“We hope you’ll stop by booth #1020 next month,” says Murphy.  “We’re looking forward to chatting with you and discussing the benefits of our agent program and, most importantly, seeing who will reign supreme at our booth game.”

This year’s CP Conference keynote address is on “Service Provider Transformation,” presented by the CSO of Skype, Christopher Dean.  The general session will tackle the topic “Hidden Charges: What Are They and What Can You Do about Them?” 

In addition to the featured session, 90-minute workshops on a variety of hot topics will be available.  Subjects include carrier Ethernet, hosted VoIP, and 4G wireless, among many others.  Educational-focused seminars will be held during the conference covering topics ranging from sales and marketing to business development and vendor options.

Schedule your one-on-one with NEF to talk about the new high cap and colo agent and referral programs – and discuss how your business can benefit from these larger deal sizes.

In the world of enterprise connectivity and colocation, we all know that fast is getting faster, and the lowest latency networks are winning the race. Always keeping you one step ahead, NEF is offering bandwidth availability on new routes from Chicago to NY and Chicago to Ashburn at incredible speeds.

In particular, we’re proud of this new route from Chicago to Ashburn that spans approximately 915 optical miles, beginning at 350 E. Cermak in Chicago and ending at 21715 Filigree Court in Ashburn, VA. It tests at 15.5ms RTD which makes it one of the lowest latency routes available and it is fully customizable to your needs, offering service at 100M Fast-E, 150M GbE, 1G GbE and 2.5G. We are committed to providing installation within 30 days and we stand behind our route with a proof-positive service level agreement—if you don’t like, you don’t have to keep it.

Ashburn has become one of the hottest locations as a major East Coast traffic exchange hub due to its strategic location just 30 minutes west of Washington DC. Ashburn colo campuses are continually growing and undergoing expansion in order to keep up with the growing demand. Ashburn, VA, is also home to giants AOL and Verizon.

Specifically, the Equinix facility at 21715 Filigree Court is 461,700 square feet and situated on a 32.6 acre campus. It is the first IBX center opened by Equinix, the DC1 IBX and it offers customer state-of-the-art technology and high-quality connectivity. Much like you’d expect from a global leader, the Equinix Filigree campus offers a full range of premium interconnection, colocation and support services.

By working with industry leading data centers such as Equinix as well as numerous carriers, we are able to provide our customers with the fastest and most reliable routes and end-to-end networks. Please contact NEF today to discuss your needs and how we can make your fast even faster.

Contact us today!

In order to better address growing bandwidth demands and low-latency networking needs, AboveNet, Inc. has partnered with i/o Data Centers at its Phoenix ONE facility.

i/o Data Centers offers  innovative and flexible colocation solutions including cabinets, cages and data center suites.  With a footprint equivalent to nine football fields, the 538,000 square foot ONE Phoenix facility is the largest commercially available data center in the U.S.  In addition, the high-availability and highly redundant ONE Phoenix facility takes advantage of its sunny Arizona location by using solar power for some of its power needs.

“We have worked collaboratively with i/o Data Centers to design a world-class, state-of-the-art, low latency fiber network,” said AboveNet President and CEO Bill LaPerch. “This network will allow i/o’s customers to have reliable, industry-leading network connectivity.”

Are you ready to learn more about AboveNet and how NEF can help you find the ultra-reliable and affordable carrier neutral colo?  Give us a call today.