Bandwidth IG’s Greater Atlanta fiber expansion targets data center growth

Bandwidth IG (BIG), a dark fiber provider, is addressing the Greater Atlanta area’s need for new connectivity options. Atlanta has emerged as one of North America's largest data center markets, and BIG’s recently launched fiber expansion will play a critical role in the growth. 

BIG’s latest expansion in the Greater Atlanta network will double its fiber footprint, adding 170 route miles, bringing the total to more than 330 route miles in Georgia. New investments in digital infrastructure, including innovation hubs and data center campuses, are expanding further outside of the central downtown business district, creating a new need for digital infrastructure services in more areas.

The dark fiber provider’s expansion will deliver infrastructure to additional counties, including Rockdale, Newton, Henry, Dekalb, and Butts Counties. Also, the investment densifies BIG’s existing network in Clayton, Douglas, Fayette, and Fulton Counties.

An emerging market

According to a Data Center Frontier report, Atlanta has become a hotbed of data center build activity as Northern Virginia's power constraints have risen. Atlanta is also a desirable data center market due to its availability of land and power to accommodate future hyperscaler data center growth.

In addition to Meta’s move to build a large data center in Newton County, several data center providers, including Vantage Data Centers, Switch, Flexential, DataBank, and Microsoft, are all at some stage of building new data centers in the Atlanta area.

Driving economic growth

Besides offering a new fiber option, BIG’s build will drive new economic growth in the Greater Atlanta region while solidifying the region’s position as a technology and innovation hub.

Construction of BIG’s network expansion is underway, and the first segment is expected to be complete by the third quarter of this year.

BIG is hardly a stranger to Greater Atlanta, having served the area with purpose-built underground fiber infrastructure since the launch of its network in 2019. Upon completing this announced expansion, BIG’s fiber network will serve over 30 data center campuses across 10 counties. 

Greater Atlanta is one of three markets where Bandwidth IG is addressing the data center opportunity. Last January, Bandwidth IG launched a large dark fiber build in the San Francisco Bay Area, a booming data center market. Like Greater Atlanta, the San Francisco build reflected the growing need for dedicated fiber facilities.

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