We all know there are a lot of companies building dark fiber networks right now. They are building networks to residential communities, antenna sites, public schools and more. All worthy business models that help to expand internet access and bandwidth for the next generation of applications.
Our primary focus at Bandwidth IG is building and operating the most efficient, high capacity dark fiber network fabric between major data centers to empower our connected society. Check out more about our quality networks empowered by Bandwidth IG in our new video and read on to learn why we chose this plan.
Enterprise Digital Transformation is in Early Innings
There are approximately 5 billion people accessing the internet. Twenty years ago, when most of the legacy fiber networks were built, there were only 400 million users.
In terms of devices, more than 20 billion are connected to the internet – we’re talking everything from phones and tablets, to video surveillance cameras, healthcare monitoring systems and asset tracking widgets. Cisco forecasts the number of devices connected to the internet will increase exponentially, reaching 80 billion within the next four years.
But here’s the kicker… the amount of bandwidth consumed per device is actually growing faster than the number of devices.
Businesses are relying on legacy fiber networks to deliver more data than ever before, faster than ever before. IT managers are under pressure to transform all aspects of their operations to become more internet and cloud-friendly, to increase their nimbleness and to continue to meet the growing demand of their customers. A process that will take years to complete.
Data Centers are the Key Point of Intersection for All Cloud Communication & Content Applications 
All data, whether generated by people or machines, comes back to a data center.
In their journey to digital transformation, enterprises are engaged in a race to find new and creative ways to mine this data by building predictive analytics, AI/ML and Big Data applications. The servers that run these applications need a resilient data center environment to store, process, sort and execute routines to turn that data into currency.
Data Center Interconnection Favors Dark Fiber
No other medium provides more throughput – full stop.
In the last 20 years, fiber has gone from being capable of providing 2.5Gbps of bandwidth to 400Gbps today. That means the available capacity on a pair of fibers increases at a compound annual growth rate of greater than 28%.
While the quality of the fiber has improved over that time period, the major advancements responsible for the throughput increase are primarily related to innovations in optronics. In other words, while electronics are upgraded every few years, the fiber remains relatively unchanged.
However, as we previously stated, we believe the condition of most existing fiber infrastructure, legacy networks just can’t meet the specifications required by today’s advanced digital enterprises.
A Closer Look at the Challenges of Legacy Dark Fiber Networks for Enterprises
Given the critical nature of digital interactions businesses have with their customers, their network technical specifications have become far more stringent. The legacy network service providers built their networks to get to Bell Central Offices and as a result, may not take the most direct route between data centers. More distance between end-points means more latency – which is a major productivity drag for most advanced digital enterprises.
Additionally, many of those networks were built through acquisition – forcing them to attempt to marry incompatible cables. Each time they splice those disparate cables together, they introduce signal loss. Another productivity drag for digital enterprises.
And as a result of placing those networks 20+ years ago, when the internet served only 400 million people, they have relatively few fibers remaining in inventory which puts them at a disadvantage when customers today are looking for multiple fibers to future-proof their operations.
You may ask – Why wouldn’t everyone be trying to build a new high quality dark fiber network?
Because building great networks is hard work. You have to carefully design, engineer and construct networks that minimize distance between end-points for latency and maximize separation from incumbent networks for diversity. And you have to make sure to select and place the highest-quality materials available. This is no small feat and requires a lot of diligence.
Then you need to work closely with the jurisdictions to ensure the network assets are placed in a way that future interruptions are improbable. An exercise in patience and persistence at a minimum. But if done properly, you end up with network infrastructure that is supremely hard for anyone to match.
Bandwidth IG’s Unique Proposition for Enterprises
As we started our business, we knew that building the highest quality dark fiber network by carefully selecting and placing the best, high-count fiber cables would put us in position to empower our hyperscale and advanced digital enterprise customers. And along the way, we’ve come to appreciate how much of a struggle our customers were having in finding service providers that could meet their more stringent signal loss and latency specifications.
Many of our customers can associate tangible dollar figures for every millisecond of added latency or decibel of signal loss. At scale, those dollars add up meaningfully. And whether this equates to truly lost business or simply an opportunity cost is immaterial. The mission will always be to create a network to minimize both.
At Bandwidth IG, our network is brand-new, purpose-built to minimize latency and signal loss – and to maximize diversity. Every inch of our network has multiple conduits and is populated with large-count fiber optic cables – a minimum of 1,728 fibers – leaving us plenty of room to scale quickly.
All of our network is completely underground and 100% owned and operated by us and our team of highly trained professionals. We take great pride in making sure our network can outperform our most sophisticated customer’s requirements. But we also know that SERVICE will keep our customers coming back to order more, which is why we are constantly reminding ourselves that – there are no traffic jams on the extra mile – and that is exactly where our clients should expect us to be going.
Ready to learn more about our quality dark fiber network empowered by Bandwidth IG? Contact us anytime!