Communications infrastructure provider Zayo has announced plans to build more than 5,000 long-haul fiber route miles to meet the growing demands of AI workloads. This expansion is in addition to the more than 5,000 fiber route miles the company has already build over the last five years. "Zayo's investment will be critical to averting a potential bandwidth gap in the US as AI-driven data center capacity is expected to grow 2-6X over the next five years," Zayo said in a statement on January 21, 2025.
Also Read: Zayo Announces Major Network Infrastructure Upgrades Across North America
Strengthen AI Data Center Connectivity
To support the predicted AI demands, Zayo said it plans to build five new long-haul routes and upgrade seven key existing routes over the next five years. The routes will provide direct, low-latency, and scalable paths between key data center hubs and forecasted growth areas.
The new routes include: Chicago to Columbus; Las Vegas to Reno, Nevada; Atlanta to Ashburn, Virginia; Minneapolis to Chicago; and Columbus to Indianapolis.
The overbuild routes include: Denver to Dallas; Denver to Omaha to Chicago; Denver to Salt Lake City; Salt Lake City to Reno; Dallas to Atlanta; Columbus to Ashburn; and Phoenix to Tucson.
Zayo emphasised that these routes will support direct, low-latency, and scalable paths between key data center hubs and forecasted growth areas.
Also Read: Zayo Announces Network Enhancements and Industry-First On-Demand Connectivity Service
"Keeping pace with the next wave of AI growth will require new long-haul networks to enable the rapid scaling of capacity needs in both existing and emerging AI data center markets. In 2024, Zayo saw significant AI-driven demand for long-haul routes, including more than USD 1 billion in AI-related deals and an additional USD 3 billion in pipeline. This demand shows no signs of letting up," said Steve Smith, Chief Executive Officer at Zayo.
"As the complexity of long-haul builds continues to be prohibitive to many providers, Zayo remains the only company building long-haul routes at scale to lead this next phase of infrastructure growth," he added.
Deployment Capabilities for the AI Era
Zayo said the route locations were chosen based on expected data center growth, power availability, existing capacity constraints, and other regional characteristics. "Additional routes and investments will be determined throughout the year," the company added.
In addition to capital investments, Zayo said it is scaling its long-haul deployment capabilities by expanding its team and introducing specialised functions to drive project efficiency and oversight.
Also Read: Verizon Advances Fiber Network Capacity To Support AI Workloads
400G-Enabled Networks
Zayo's North American network spans 16.5 million fiber miles, with 700,000 fiber miles and 14 new 400G-enabled wavelength routes added last year. The company also reached a petabit of active Waves services in 2024 and said it expects its North American network to be fully 400G enabled by the end of this year.
