Zayo Upgrades in Europe

Two announcements hit the wires for Zayo yesterday. No, not another deal yet, though there’s always tomorrow. Zayo is working on a longhaul upgrade in Europe and picked up a key research & education contract back in the USA.

In Europe, Zayo has expanded its 100G footprint on its main intercity loop. That’s the one AboveNet put in place before Zayo bought them, building a foothold on the continent beyond London. Over the past nine months, Zayo has built out 100G wavelength capability on the London-Amsterdam-Frankfurt-Paris-London loop. With the Geo and Neo acquisitions dramatically boosting Zayo’s European coverage, those 100G pipes will come in handy. A few more similar acquisitions this year could easily happen, should the opportunity arise.

Meanwhile, Zayo says it has been selected as an Authorized Quilt Provider for IP services. That means they’ll be able to sell IP connectivity to the 35 regional networks and 3,000 educational institutions that make up The Quilt around the country. Zayo’s IP backbone also derives to a large extent from the AboveNet deal, although it’s the deep metro footprint outside of the NFL cities that the rest of Zayo brought to the table that gives it much of its mojo now. The AQP status doesn’t immediately win them any deals of course, just the ability to bid for them.