A major wireless carrier has selected Zayo for fiber-to-the-tower (FTT) to new macro towers in 30 markets across 21 states. The Zayo fiber-to-the-tower deal is an expansion of an agreement announced in September 2016. Inclusive of both contracts, Zayo will connect thousands of macro towers for the customer. The contract is Zayo’s largest mobile infrastructure contract to date.
The announcement continues Zayo’s recent string of customer wins. In the second half of March, Zayo announced new agreements with Pico and with a global webscale company.
Pico chose Zayo for a low-latency global backbone network. The primary ring provides Pico with a low-latency solution, with the secondary ring providing the next best available latency while maintaining 100 percent physical diversity. The solution leverages Zayo’s owned network in North America and Europe along with its Global Reach relationships with international network providers.
The global webscale company picked Zayo to provide dark fiber services on its Reno to Umatilla route, which is currently under development.
Zayo Fiber-to-the-Tower
The most recent announcement involving the major wireless company is for a solution that includes deployment of dark fiber infrastructure, in some cases replacing legacy Ethernet. The new infrastructure will support the carrier’s strategy of improving coverage and capacity across its network to accommodate increasing traffic and to prepare for 5G. The deployment will leverage Zayo’s existing fiber network and includes construction of hundreds of route miles of fiber.
This agreement pertains to macro towers. Under other contracts, Zayo is deploying small cell infrastructure for this customer. In many cases, these are full turnkey implementations, including RF design, site acquisition, permitting and installation of equipment.
“This undertaking is the result of a trusted relationship with the customer,” said Dan Caruso, chairman and CEO of Zayo, in a prepared statement. “As they continue to densify to meet the growing demand for bandwidth, dark fiber provides the optimal long-term solution.
“Mobile Infrastructure projects like these leverage existing fiber networks,” added Caruso. “They also result in further network expansion, which is then leveraged for other customer projects, including healthcare, school districts and other wireless carriers.”
