Zayo has launched a significant expansion of its North American communications infrastructure, breaking ground on three new long-haul dark fiber routes and completing the 400G upgrade of its core network. The initiative is designed to meet the escalating bandwidth demands of AI-driven workloads and future data-intensive technologies.
The new fiber builds include a 385-mile low-latency route from Chicago to Columbus, a 521-mile dark fiber line connecting Chicago to Minneapolis, and a 123-mile link between Phoenix and Tucson. Each of these routes connects major data centers and will serve as foundational pathways in Zayo’s growing AI-optimized corridor. The Phoenix–Tucson segment will also act as a launching point for three future builds extending to El Paso, Dallas, and Mexico.
In Q2, Zayo completed the 100% 400G upgrade of its North American core, supporting customers with higher-capacity, lower-latency services. Zayo added 393.6 Tb of optical capacity and deployed 10 additional 400G-enabled points of presence (PoPs). The company also expanded its IP core with six new PoPs—including 400G-enabled sites in Montreal and Chicago—and boosted its fiber monitoring to cover over 14,000 route miles.
Additional infrastructure highlights:
- Added 393.6 Tbs of optical capacity across the network
- Expanded fiber monitoring to 14,000+ route miles
- Deployed 6 new IP PoPs (2 with 400G in Montreal and Chicago)
- Launched 25 new Quick Connect Data Centers (total now 100+ facilities)
- All North American core network routes now 400G-enabled
“As the only provider to build long-haul infrastructure at scale in the last decade, Zayo is uniquely positioned to deliver on this need in a way that no one else in the market can,” said Bill Long, Chief Product & Strategy Officer at Zayo.