Due to elevated activity in the submarine fiber optics market, there has been a heightened need to link submarine cables with terrestrial fiber providers.
Lightpath’s CTO, Phil Olivero, recently sat down with SubCableWorld to provide current market insights and discuss Lightpath’s latest and greatest provisions to account for this demand.
Lightpath’s Origin
For 30 years, Lightpath has been building fiberoptic networks. The company was a part of Cablevision for many years, but fast forward to 2016 when Altice came into the picture. Not only did they purchase Cablevision along with several other cable providers, but a few years later in December 2020, Altice made the decision to create Lightpath as a separate entity.
Game-Changer
Lightpath has set out to not just be a telecom carrier, but a builder of next-gen networks, revolutionizing the industry. The company has made innovation the heart of its business and a part of every aspect, including its network, technologies, and services. That spirit of innovation is even ingrained into its customer service departments – where they’ve empowered teams to drive that innovation to support customers. Aligned with its new vision, Lightpath has been on an aggressive path to expand its fiber in locations where its customers need to be.
The growing list…
20,000 route miles of fiber in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts (150 miles in their recent Boston expansion – learn more here)
13,500 on-net locations
Connected to 75+ data centers
Connected to seven cable landing stations (New York/New Jersey)
Extensions to Ashburn, Chicago, Atlanta, and Dallas
Enhanced connection to the New Jersey Fiber Exchange campus
Cable station routes to Long Island’s Old County Road which serves as a station for submarine cable termination gear
Meeting The Demand Between Cable Landing Station and Data Center
CTO for Lightpath, Phil Olivero says: “What’s interesting is that our customers like our paths because they’re diverse from the typical telco routes. The telco routes tend to go into the central offices, while ours, because of the cable television network architecture, go through the Altice headends. So, we have a little bit different routing and can offer different locations for colocation and for amplifiers and regeneration along the routes from cable landing stations to the data centers.
We offer both the diverse fiber routes and the colocation options at those headends and our customers can take advantage of the dark fiber we offer between the cable stations and the data centers, as well as optical transport services. We can customize route lengths and splices to reduce loss. We have customers who look for slightly shorter paths because they’re going to run ultra-high-bandwidth custom optical systems on these fibers. We’re finding that hyperscalers really like the flexibility that we have with our dense network – meaning that they can customize things to their exact needs.”
Right now, the focus is all on customization for specific paths with both dual entries and as few splices as possible. Lightpath is truly changing the game with its expansions and is creating a compelling union between the submarine cables and terrestrial fiber providers. Reliable, resilient, and robust connectivity where you need it.
