USA Fiber launches dark fiber link across Potomac River

Dark fiber provider USA Fiber says it has begun construction of a dark fiber network that will connect Ashburn, VA and Baltimore by crossing the Potomac River. When completed next year, the underground fiber-optic network will offer route diversity through the area by bypassing Washington, DC, according to the company.

This is the company's second new build activity in the area (see "USA Fiber adds dark fiber to Northern Virginia").

USA Fiber hasn't revealed where the dark fiber run will cross the Potomac, other than to say it will do so at a right-of-way easement between Virginia and Maryland. The route will offer lower latency than alternative paths. The route will serve such hotspots as the Max GigAPoP, civilian federal agency campuses in Maryland, and various defense department and intelligence community sites. It also can serve traffic heading north to financial centers, including those in New York City.

The company says it is working with key anchor tenants and has opened access to the route in a carrier neutral platform that will enable existing federal contract holders to use the new route for their clients. USA Fiber expects clients in all of Ashburn's data centers to have access to the route, including those using facilities from Equinix, Digital Realty, AT&T, CenturyLink, and Dupont Fabros.

USA Fiber expects the dark fiber route to appeal to clients looking for route diversity, a path around Washington, low latency, and scale.

"This is a flagship build for USA Fiber, and a major infrastructure addition for the market," asserts Judd Carothers, who founded USA Fiber alongside Ken Off. "This new fiber-optic route differentiates itself from existing market assets in that most of the existing infrastructure is now close to 20 years old, typically the useful life of fiber from many manufacturers; it has a significantly lower latency profile ;and is built 100% underground with a very large inventory of dark fiber."

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