Dark Fiber

Why dark fiber will never be a commodity.

If you've worked with us before, you know we do things differently: We stick by our price quotes. We meet our delivery dates. We treat you the way we'd want to be treated.

Beyond that, though, you may think there isn't much that separates us from other dark fiber suppliers. The fact is, there are critical differences between AFS and others—ones that could have a significant impact on the satisfaction of your customers.

  • We provide higher levels of maintenance on our dark fiber.
  • We provide a high level of signal testing.
  • We provide exceptionally fast service when outages occur.
  • We proved true redundancy-something that other suppliers may seem to offer, but actually don't.

Path Diversity

Most of our dark fiber routes are clearly different from those offered by other suppliers. So if you are trying to establish redundancy, you'll actually get it from us. We don't participate in joint builds with other suppliers, so you won't find our networks following the same routes as any other fiber company.

Remember this: You can't assure that your customers are getting path diversity by simply offering a different supplier. Often, multiple suppliers follow the exact same routes.

There's only one way to be sure you're providing the diversity your customers are looking for: Ask to see the map your traffic will follow. If a fiber company won't provide that, take your business somewhere else.

Ongoing Maintenance and Testing

We are constantly testing, maintaining and updating our dark fiber networks.

We monitor the quality of the network and the quality of the signal that occurs. If something doesn't measure up, we're on it-fast. We're used to an extremely high level of service: We own all our own networks. So we know what it takes to keep them up and operating virtually all the time.

Our track record for continual maintenance, monitoring, and management of our fiber infrastructure is one of the best in the industry. We will be happy to provide references on request.

The right size and placement

When you hear about the large rings of dark fiber that some companies offer, it may seem like this is a competitive advantage. After all, don't large rings make it easier for you to reach your customers multiple locations?

The truth is, there's an optimum size for fiber rings. Once you get past 70 kilometers (just over 40 miles), your customers have to move up to the next level of equipment to boost the power of their signals.

That's why we keep our fiber rings right around the optimum 70-kilometer limit-keeping equipment needs in a much more affordable range.

We also make sure our rings are placed in optimum locations that don't mimic those of other area suppliers.

Want to learn more? Contact our team and we'll help you find the right solution.