Lightower Expands Again With Datacenter101 Buy

**Editor’s Note: Please click here for a recap of the biggest channel-impacting mergers in March-April 2016.**

Lightower Fiber Networks has acquired Datacenter101 to help meet demand for data center and networking services in the Columbus, Ohio, area.

This is the latest in a series of acquisitions for the network services provider, the most noteworthy being its purchase of rival Fibertech Networks for $1.9 billion. (Channel Partners took you inside Lightower’s suburban Boston headquarters last fall for a video that highlighted its acquisition of Fibertech and the potential impact on the channel.)

Philip Olivero, Lightower’s chief technology officer, tells Channel Partners that his company is always looking at “opportunities to densify and grow our all-fiber networks so that we can offer our high-performance network services to more customers.”

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“DC101 is located in an essential connectivity point in Columbus, Ohio, and data-center services are very complementary to high-capacity network services,” he said.{ad}

The Datacenter101 facility is engineered for “redundancy, reliability and scalability for small, medium and large businesses within the region,” Lightower said. The acquired company offers both enterprise-class data center services as well as carrier-class colocation services.

“For Lightower’s partners, this acquisition will open up opportunities to sell scalable, protected (critical systems designed to N+1 architecture), customizable colocation and data center space (e.g. 3-5kW powered cabinets, cages) to small, medium or large enterprises in central Ohio,” Olivero said. “This can be paired with networking solutions from Lightower such as Ethernet, wavelengths, dark fiber or cloud connectivity to connect to any of Lightower’s 15,000 on-net locations. Network connectivity from a diversified group of other service providers is also available.”

The Lightower network extends more than 30,000 route miles throughout the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, providing dense connectivity to more than 15,000 service locations, including more than 250 data centers and more than 5,000 wireless towers.