Bandwidth IG, the metro dark fiber provider known for its strategic placement of fiber networks, is ramping up its San Francisco Bay Area infrastructure. The company's latest network expansion, featuring over 310 route miles and upwards of 2 million fiber miles, aims to enhance the data center capacities of this teeming market significantly. This new system promises to feed the growing demand for data center space and power and includes a marine cable — the first in over two decades — laid beneath the San Francisco Bay, ensuring high-capacity connectivity.
"With unprecedented demand for data center space and power, providing the San Francisco Bay Area with new purpose-built, mission-critical infrastructure becomes a market necessity," told Bandwidth IG's Chief Commercial Officer, Patton Lochridge, arguably underscoring the deficiency in capacity and capabilities of existing networks to meet the data needs of the industry's heavyweights. The new infrastructure is set to boost AI and other advanced technologies, leveraging a path for connectivity crucial to the market's development.
Cushman & Wakefield highlight that the Silicon Valley data center landscape will continue to dominate as a top market, reinforced by AI and cloud demand. Current figures suggest that the market has 824MW in operation and another 315MW under construction, signaling a clear need for more fiber to support the burgeoning data center ecosystem. Bandwidth IG's investment into the area is a move to address this demand head-on.
Moreover, the innovative network laid by Bandwidth IG also boasts of reduced latency due to the most direct routes intentionally placed while constructing one of the only subsea paths beneath the San Francisco Bay, laden with the highest fiber count in the market. According to Bandwidth IG, this development is monumental in its addition to the Bay's data communication capacity and as a landmark communications conduit under the Bay first installed for decades.
The expansion will place Bandwidth IG's network "on net" to more than 65 data centers and is expected to connect an additional 10 facilities upon completion by Q2 2024. When finalized, the full extent of Bandwidth IG's Bay Area operation promises to be a significant stride in catering to a region that is at the vanguard of technology innovation and heavy data consumption.
