Network infrastructure decisions can make or break your business operations. While many organizations struggle with shared bandwidth and limited control, Zayo’s unique long haul Dark Fiber routes offer a different path forward – one that enables your business to scale with your ambition.
With unparalleled scalability, security, and reliability, dark fiber is quickly becoming the gold standard for businesses with high-performance network needs. But what exactly sets Zayo’s long haul Dark Fiber routes apart from the rest? Let’s explore the key advantages that make Zayo a leader in this space.
What is a Unique Long Haul Dark Fiber Route?
Zayo’s Dark Fiber routes set the benchmark for excellence in network infrastructure, offering exclusive, carrier-diverse fiber paths you won’t find with any other provider in North America. These routes address critical infrastructure gaps by providing direct, purpose-built connections that minimize latency and ensure maximum performance.
What sets Zayo’s routes apart? They are physically exclusive, owned solely by Zayo, and built to be diverse from existing infrastructure for maximum redundancy. As part of Zayo’s Dark Fiber network, the largest independently owned fiber network in North America, they offer unmatched reliability and scalability. Designed to meet specific market needs, these routes deliver unmatched connectivity, resilience, and speed across key markets.
Understanding the Benefits of Dark Fiber Technology
Dark fiber provides organizations with secure fiber infrastructure that they can fully control and customize. This includes determining the network’s capacity, choosing the equipment for signal transmission, and configuring the fiber routes to meet specific performance, security, and scalability requirements.
With full control over how it’s lit and operated, dark fiber provides flexibility for businesses looking to build secure, scalable networks. Here’s how:
- Proven Technology: High-speed, high-capacity data transfer with minimal signal loss, ideal for scalable, low-latency, and reliable infrastructure.
- Scalability: Easily scale bandwidth by upgrading transmission equipment without adding fiber, supporting future data demands and new technologies.
- Resilience: Critical for operational continuity, minimizing losses from outages, cyberattacks, or natural disasters.
Zayo’s Unique Dark Fiber Routes
Today, Zayo operates nine unique Dark Fiber routes across North America, each strategically positioned to address specific market needs and infrastructure gaps. These routes collectively span thousands of miles and connect major economic centers with the most advanced fiber technology available, with new routes completed each year.
Universal Route Characteristics
Every Zayo unique Dark Fiber route shares these critical features:
- 100% Underground Construction: All routes are buried underground, providing maximum physical security and protection from weather, accidents, and intentional damage. This underground construction significantly reduces the risk of service interruptions.
- Optimized for Low Latency: Routes are typically designed to provide the shortest possible distance between endpoints, minimizing signal travel time for applications that require real-time data transmission.
- Physical Diversity: Every route is built to be geographically diverse from other fiber providers and from Zayo’s existing network infrastructure, maximizing redundancy options.
- Strategic Market Connections: Routes connect key business centers, financial markets, and data center hubs where enterprises need the most reliable connectivity.
San Luis Obispo – San Diego
Linking the emerging markets of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara with the established hubs of Los Angeles and San Diego, this 425-mile partial subsea route delivers unparalleled security and resilience. Following the coastline of California, it provides a one-of-a-kind diverse and reliable pathway for bandwidth along the West Coast, ensuring seamless connectivity for customers.
Portland – Umatilla
Our Portland-to-Umatilla Dark Fiber route offers a unique solution for customers seeking greater network diversity along the West Coast. This east-to-west connection seamlessly integrates with existing West Coast Long Haul Dark Fiber networks and western subsea networks, while enabling access to emerging diverse routes in the region. It also links to new pathways between Umatilla, Reno, and the broader Central Mountain Region, ensuring enhanced connectivity and flexibility for your network needs.
Las Vegas – Tucson
Zayo is enhancing its unique network connecting Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Tucson by expanding routes between key data center locations. This development plays a pivotal role in the growth of Zayo’s AI-ready networks, linking critical and emerging AI markets in the Phoenix region. The strategically designed route seamlessly integrates with major data center hubs in El Paso and Dallas. Constructed entirely underground, this network offers exceptional security and delivers the lowest latency between cities along this newly established path.
Omaha – Dallas
This unique route connects Omaha’s growing tech sectors with Dallas’s established manufacturing industries, passing through Kansas City to provide the most direct, low-latency connection between the two cities. Spanning 818 miles of underground fiber, it delivers unparalleled security and reliability, ensuring maximum uptime on the most direct route between these two key cities connecting through Kansas City for customers who rely on this vital infrastructure.
Dallas – Atlanta
Completed in 2022, this Dark Fiber route delivers exceptional security and reliability, seamlessly connecting the rapidly growing tech hubs of the South. It is now actively being overbuilt to provide even more capacity. Spanning over 800 miles of underground high-count fiber, it provides customers with a low-latency, high-performance connection ideal for critical bandwidth demands.
St. Louis – New Orleans
This distinct underground route bridges New Orleans with emerging tech hubs in St. Louis, creating a vital connection between southern and midwestern markets while seamlessly integrating with existing Dark Fiber networks. Its unique route diversity helps deliver ultra-low latency and unparalleled uptime for businesses operating in these regions. Additionally, the route extends to Chicago, further broadening access to key financial markets.
Chicago – New Jersey
This critical pathway provides an unparalleled, direct connection between two major financial markets, delivering exceptional low latency and high resilience. Enhanced by redundant routes through Washington, D.C., this fully underground network ensures superior security and robust bandwidth capacity, making it an ideal solution for facilitating essential financial exchanges with reliability and efficiency.
Pittsburgh – Columbus
Columbus, Ohio, the next data center hub, has received a significant upgrade with the addition of a direct Dark Fiber connection to Pittsburgh. This high-capacity, 100% underground fiber route is designed to support AI development and seamless data center access, further strengthening Zayo’s vision for a future-ready network. This unique route will integrate with our Columbus-to-Chicago AI corridor, currently under development, further enhancing our AI-ready network. Customers can benefit from exceptional uptime and robust bandwidth availability, making this unique connection a game-changer for modern data needs.
Columbus – Ashburn
Zayo’s Columbus to Ashburn route is the only direct underground connection linking these two major data center hubs. With Columbus quickly emerging as a prime location for data center development, and Ashburn recognized as the data center capital of the world, this route offers unparalleled value. Designed for scalability and reliability, it provides customers with secure access to key growth markets, as well as Zayo’s expansive Dark Fiber network. This unique connection represents a critical infrastructure solution for businesses seeking high-capacity, future-proof fiber connectivity.