Lightower Fiber Networks
![]() | |
Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Telecommunications IT Services |
Areas served | Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest US, London, Toronto |
Key people | Rob Shanahan – President and Chief Executive Officer |
Parent | Crown Castle International Corp. |
Website | Lightower.com |
Lightower Fiber Networks, founded in 2006, was a provider of telecommunications and IT services. It offered cloud computing, colocation hosting, and connectivity.
Description
The company's network spans the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest United States including Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, DC, and New Hampshire.[1] Additionally, Lightower offers service in both Toronto and London.[2] The network comprises over 33,000 route miles of fiber.[3][4][5]
Lightower’s products include network and video transport, alternative access, nationwide long haul services, dark fiber, Ethernet, and cloud computing services. Lightower has built out access to over 22,000 service locations throughout the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest including 275+ data centers and 5,000+ wireless towers, rooftop cell sites, and small cells.[6][7]
Customers include Fortune 500 businesses, enterprise, carriers, financial services, media, healthcare, education, and government.[8]
The company was acquired by Berkshire Partners in December 2012 when it also acquired Sidera Networks and announced plans to merge them under the Lightower brand. Its previous owners were M/C Partners and Pamlico Capital (the investing unit of Wachovia before its takeover by Wells Fargo. Those two companies had bought it from National Grid in 2007.[9] Lightower was bought by Crown Castle in July 2017, and no longer exists as a separate company.[10] [11]
The company was the title sponsor of the Lightower Conference Classic, now called the Roc City Hoops Classic.[citation needed]
Mergers and acquisitions
2007
- National Grid Wireless- Acquisition (NEESCom)[12]
2008
- Keyspan Communications - Acquisition
- Hudson Valley DataNet - Acquisition [13]
2010
- Veroxity Technology Partners - Acquisition [14]
- Lexent Metro Connect New York City based neutral telecommunications provider that owns, operates, builds and maintains its own dark fiber network in New York, Northern New Jersey, and surrounding areas. - Acquisition [15]
- Open Access, Inc. - Acquisition [16]
2013
- Sidera Networks - Merger [17]
2015
- Fibertech - Merger[18]
- Colocation Zone - Acquisition[19]
2016
- Datacenter101 - Acquisition[20]
References
- ^ "Lightower Fiber Networks Overview and Coverage". broadbandnow.com. Retrieved 2015-06-02.
- ^ "Lightower Closes Merger with Sidera Networks to Form One of the Largest Pure Play Fiber Providers in U.S. Networking Market".
- ^ Lee, Justin (May 14, 2012). "Fiber Carrier Lightower Expands Network and Data Center in Providence". Web Host Industry Review. Retrieved May 20, 2012.
- ^ "Lightower to Add More New Jersey Metro Depth". Telecom Ramblings. May 7, 2012. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
- ^ Seiffert, Don (April 11, 2013). "Lightower Completes $2B Merger with Sidera". Boston Business Journal. Retrieved April 11, 2013.
- ^ "Lightower Announces Major Expansions of Fiber Network in Central and Northern New Jersey". A-Team Group. June 5, 2012. Retrieved May 9, 2012.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Expansions On the Menu for Sidera, Lightower, Zayo, Level 3". Telecom Ramblings. May 14, 2012. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
- ^ "Boxborough's Lightower Opens N.J. Office". Worcester Business Journal Online. March 6, 2012. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
- ^ Turner, Nick (2012-12-27). "Berkshire to Buy Lightower, Sidera for $2 Billion". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2013-05-26.
- ^ "Tower operator Crown Castle to buy Lightower for $7.1 billion". Reuters. 2017-07-18. Retrieved 2019-01-15.
- ^ "Crown Castle International Corp. Makes a $7.1 Billion Fiber Deal". Motley Fool. 2017-07-19. Retrieved 2019-01-15.
- ^ "National Grid Wireless Changes Name to Lightower". Red Orbit. August 16, 2007. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
- ^ "Lightower Fiber Acquires DataNet Communications Group and KeySpan Communications..." Reuters. March 6, 2008. Archived from the original on February 1, 2013. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
- ^ "Fiber clumps up: Lightower buying Veroxity". Mass High Tech. May 25, 2010. Archived from the original on 2010-05-29. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
- ^ "Lexent Metro Acquired by Lightower Fiber". Data Center Knowledge. September 14, 2010. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
- ^ "Lightower Fiber Networks to acquire Open Access Inc". Lightwave Online. December 13, 2010. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
- ^ Wong, Wailin (April 11, 2013). "Lightower, Sidera Merger Forms Large Fiber-Optic Network". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved April 11, 2013.
- ^ Bray, Hiawatha (April 27, 2015). "Merged company will have 30,000 miles of fiber network". Boston Globe. Retrieved June 3, 2015.
- ^ "Lightower Acquires Chicago's Colocation Zone". Lightwave Online. March 13, 2015. Retrieved June 3, 2015.
- ^ Moss, Sebastian (July 6, 2016). "Lightower Fiber Network Buys Datacenter101 in Ohio". DatacenterDynamics. Retrieved July 6, 2016.
- "Lightower Picks Ciena for 100G". 11 January 2012.
- "Lightower’s Ultra-Low Latency Network Provides Fastest Networking to Key Financial Centers". 3 November 2011.
- "Lightower Announces New Network Expansion Projects in New York Metro and Southern Connecticut". 21 June 2011.
- ”Lightower Completes Acquisition of Open Access Inc.” 1 April 2011.
- ”Lightower Acquires Veroxity Technology”. 25 May 2010.
External links
- Official website
- Lightower on Twitter