Dark Fiber is a pre-existing underground infrastructure that doesn’t yet have the hardware or software that enables it to run services. Fiber-optic cables that are actively sending data via light pulses and wavelengths are considered lit. The unused fibers are unlit — or dark.

40 years ago, more fiber was laid than what was needed to prepare for growth and demand.

The surplus of infrastructure left is today’s dark fiber, which can be bought or leased by other businesses. In some cases, new dark fiber is built for businesses.

In the challenging terrain of the Appalachian foothills, local provider JB-Nets needed more than just a connection — they needed a backbone that could scale alongside the “Netflix effect” of rising consumer demand. By 2011, JB-Nets faced a pivotal infrastructure bottleneck driven by the growing popularity of multimedia-rich services like YouTube and streaming video that the company’s existing T1-based backbone could not support.

To solve these throughput and terrain challenges, Glo Fiber Business partnered with JB-Nets to serve as their primary upstream provider. It began with replacing limited T1 lines with a dedicated 50 Mbps circuit. This 2011 allowed JB-Nets to immediately transition their customers from 1 Mbps packages to 12 Mbps offerings.

The solution has since expanded into a comprehensive infrastructure support system. To stay ahead of modern demand, JB-Nets recently doubled its Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) with Glo Fiber Business, from 10 Gbps to 20 Gbps. Read JB-Nets Case Study to learn how Glo Fiber Business empowered JB-Nets to help bridge the digital divide in an underserved region.

Here is how Glo Fiber’s dark fiber can help your business:

Glo Fiber Business is a proven dark fiber partner

• We have one of the newest, most state-of-the-art fiber networks.
• Our local team has been trusted for 125 years to supply quality customer care to all partners.

Designed for high capacity and high performance

• Our dark fiber provides the fastest, most direct, and efficient path from end to end.
• Dark fiber is an excellent option for video applications.

Predictable costs

• Lease costs remain constant even when upgrading bandwidth and equipment.
• Our dark fiber lease agreements are competitive and fixed.

Flexible and scalable for your business operations

• Dark fiber can also easily accommodate the rapidly scaling needs of your business with virtually unlimited room to grow.

Private, secure, and customized network

• Glo Fiber Business will maintain the physical fiber; you have complete control over the rest.
• We offer customized solutions to fit your needs.
• Physically private networks like dark fiber are a great option for companies looking to improve data security.
• A strand of unlit fiber-optic cable is separate from the main network, which means the customer is the only one with visibility into the data traveling through the network.

Reliable network.

• Our network is resilient and built with ringed technology, which enables redundancy for ultimate reliability.

Enhanced disaster recovery

• Dark fiber is safeguarded against common types of outages resulting from third parties.
• Businesses can identify and remedy issues without waiting for ISPs to fix them.
• Our Network Operations Center (NOC) can dispatch repair crews quickly to restore fiber in the rare event of a fiber impairment — because our NOC is local.
• When businesses depend on utilizing two different providers as part of their disaster recovery plan, their infrastructure may overlap and reduce redundancy. However, with dark fiber, there is no risk.