In an era defined by digital transformation, the demand for powerful, reliable infrastructure has never been greater. Zayo’s acquisition of Crown Castle’s Fiber Solutions business — our largest to date — gives customers the network they need to move faster, scale smarter, and operate with greater confidence.
This strategic acquisition adds more than 40,000 on-net locations to Zayo’s already extensive network, creating a unified ecosystem with an incredible 224,000 route miles across North America. This combined footprint delivers the enhanced bandwidth, redundancy, and metro density your business needs to power the future.
Today’s most innovative technologies demand a network built for tomorrow:
- AI applications require ultra-low-latency to function at peak performance.
- Cloud providers need dense, scalable metro access to serve a growing user base.
- Enterprises need reliable connectivity to their key locations, from data centers to office buildings.
The exponential growth in bandwidth demand has set a new standard for network infrastructure. To meet this demand, you need a network that not only delivers scalable capacity, but also connects your dispersed locations with unparalleled reliability. This acquisition is Zayo’s strategic investment in delivering the powerful, future-ready network backbone your business needs to thrive in the AI era.
This is the power of Zayo and Crown Castle, together.
Strategic Synergy: What Does a Unified Network Ecosystem Look Like?
Most network providers excel in either metro or long-haul connectivity. The combined Zayo and Crown Castle network does both, creating a cohesive, end-to-end network ecosystem that serves customers of every size and across 320 markets in North America. That’s a distinction worth noting.
This powerful combination of national scale and local expertise ensures you get the right network solutions, wherever your business operates. The newly expanded footprint delivers unparalleled connectivity and reliability, enabling businesses to operate with confidence across more locations than ever before. Plus, with five border crossings into Mexico and six into Canada, your network isn’t just connected across the U.S., it’s connected across the continent.
Metro Densification: The Engine for Enterprise Performance
For years, Zayo has powered mission-critical connectivity for enterprises across North America. Now, with the addition of Crown Castle’s fiber assets, we’re delivering even greater metro network reach, bringing high-performance fiber closer to more businesses, buildings, and data centers than ever before. This acquisition delivers faster, more reliable connectivity, greater service diversity, and a local network partner backed by one of North America’s largest fiber networks.
With the addition of 90,000 metro-dense route miles and nearly 40,000 on-net buildings, getting connected where you need service is easier than ever. For AI workloads that demand near-instant data movement or cloud environments facing rising compute demand, this proximity is a game changer.
Zayo’s network offers guaranteed uptime and diverse routing options to eliminate bottlenecks, enabling you to accelerate operations with an average 5-day turn-up for Ethernet and Internet services across 180+ data center locations.
The acquisition of Crown Castle’s Fiber Solutions business reflects our long-term commitment to building the digital infrastructure that fuels innovation. Combined with our ongoing long-haul network expansion, this move solidifies our position as a leader investing in both metro and long-haul growth on a national scale. While others pull back, Zayo is doubling down on this critical infrastructure growth.
What Does This Mean for You?
This acquisition creates a complete network ecosystem, combining Zayo’s national long-haul leadership with Crown Castle’s extensive in-market metro reach. For you, this means a single, powerful network that delivers on all fronts; from coast-to-coast connectivity to dense, local fiber that brings you closer to the edge.
Faster Connections, Better Performance
Why does a denser network matter? It means Zayo is closer to you. By significantly increasing our on-net locations, we can deliver faster installations and superior performance for your most critical applications. This enhanced metro presence is a direct advantage for our customers, ensuring you get the connectivity you need, right where you need it. The combined network delivers:
- 90,000 North American On-Net Locations, providing extensive reach and faster installations.
- 180+ Quick-Connect Data Centers enabling flexible, rapid access to vital interconnection hubs.
- 450+ markets connected across our global network, expanding access for enterprise and cloud customers alike.
Local Expertise, Backed by National Leadership
This expansion is about more than just infrastructure; it’s about people. With the acquisition, we’ve added a deep bench of regional and local experts who understand your market’s unique challenges and opportunities. Now, you get the benefit of local teams with in-depth knowledge, supported by the power and scale of Zayo’s industry-leading national network.
Powering the Full AI Lifecycle
Modern applications, especially AI, demand a network built for every stage of development and deployment. Our expanded network is uniquely positioned to power the entire AI lifecycle:
- AI Training: Our robust long-haul network provides the massive bandwidth and low-latency backbone required for training complex models across geographically dispersed data centers.
- AI Inferencing: Our dense intercity and metro connectivity brings processing closer to the edge, enabling the real-time performance essential for AI inference and live applications.
This is a strategic expansion, delivering a more resilient, and high-performance network that empowers you to innovate without limits.
The Power of Together
The combination of Zayo and Crown Castle’s fiber business represents more than expanded scale. It’s a unified network ecosystem; denser, more reliable, and more interconnected than anything either network delivered on its own.
Zayo is committed to building what’s next for your business. With this expanded network, customers gain more bandwidth for data-intensive workloads, greater reliability through route diversity, and broader reach across North America and beyond. We are building the AI-ready infrastructure that makes digital transformation possible.