The primary part of Zayo’s deployment is underway in New York and New Jersey, with plans to increase the upgraded infrastructure to extra markets
In sum – what to know:
AI-fueled fiber growth – hyperscale knowledge facilities and AI workloads are driving unprecedented demand for high-capacity, low-latency fiber.
IP spine overhaul – Zayo’s partnership with Nokia brings 400G/800G-ready routing to its core, boosting scalability, reliability, and resilience throughout increasing U.S. markets.
Demand-led growth – from new long-haul builds to fiber acquisitions, Zayo is “simply following the place the demand is” to satisfy surging enterprise and cloud connectivity wants.
Denver-based telecom infrastructure supplier Zayo is partnering with Nokia to overtake its IP community structure, a part of a broader effort to ship quicker, extra dependable connectivity and broaden its service footprint throughout america.
The primary part of deployment is underway in New York and New Jersey, with plans to increase the upgraded infrastructure to dozens of extra markets and 1000’s of lit buildings over the following yr. The mission relies on Nokia’s FP5-powered 7750 Service Router and 7250 Interconnect Router platforms, designed to assist 400G and 800G-capable providers at scale.
“By partnering with Nokia, we’re setting a brand new normal for fiber-based connectivity,” mentioned Aaron Werley, Zayo’s senior vp of engineering, emphasizing the flexibility to gentle new markets and buildings extra shortly in response to buyer demand.
Nokia Vice President Jeff Valley mentioned the collaboration underscores each corporations’ dedication to advancing community transformation and supporting the following wave of cloud and edge computing.
The Nokia partnership is the newest transfer in Zayo’s aggressive growth technique. The corporate’s community now spans 19 million fiber miles and 147,000 route miles, connecting 400 markets and greater than 1,500 knowledge facilities globally. By modernizing its IP spine, Zayo goals to spice up scalability, scale back congestion, and eradicate single factors of failure throughout its infrastructure.
The corporate has been constructing momentum all through 2025. In January, it dedicated to developing 5,000 miles of recent long-haul routes, together with a 385-mile hyperlink between Chicago and Columbus. Two months later, Zayo introduced plans to purchase Crown Fortress’s fiber-solutions division, increasing its metro footprint by greater than 100,000 route miles and including 70,000+ on-net places.
The corporate’s newest “Bandwidth Report: Key Traits Driving the Bandwidth Increase” highlights the dimensions of future demand. Zayo estimates that almost 200 million extra fiber community miles might be required by 2030 to maintain tempo with development, together with 120 million long-haul and 70 million metro miles that have to be deployed by decade’s finish to keep away from capability bottlenecks.
“Whenever you’re doing fiber growth, the good technique to do it’s to go the place the purchasers are telling you to go,” Zayo’s Chief Product Officer Invoice Lengthy just lately advised RCR. “Simply observe the place the demand is.” And that demand, he defined, is more and more pushed by AI workloads and large-scale knowledge heart improvement. “We’re seeing AI… in a few totally different tiers,” Lengthy mentioned, pointing to the necessity for large fiber connectivity into new hyperscale campuses — “gargantuan” services approaching a gigawatt of energy.
