USA FIBER Signs Resource Sharing Agreement With State of Maryland
Ashburn Express Cable System To Leverage Unique Resource Share Right of Way And Connect Baltimore, Howard County and Montgomery County to Ashburn, VA
ASHBURN, Va., May 17, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- USA FIBER today announced that the company has signed a Resource Sharing Agreement (RSA) with the State of Maryland. On May 11th, 2016, at an event at the capital, Governor Hogan signed the agreement authorizing the terms negotiated by the Maryland Department of IT and USA FIBER. Resource Sharing Agreements are limited to registered CLEC's who have met the unique requirements of the public commission and negotiated with the Maryland Department of Information Technology. The agreement calls for USA FIBER to provide the state with dark fiber strands on the path it is constructing from Ashburn to Baltimore in support of State of Maryland specific use. It also enables USA FIBER to leverage the state's right of way assets throughout Maryland.
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Highlights / Key Facts
- This Resource Sharing Agreement places USA FIBER in a group of select competitive infrastructure providers able to build and own conduit and fiber infrastructure on State of Maryland public right of way, including resource limited highways.
- The Ashburn Express cable system offers a unique trans-MD-VA route boring under the Potomac River and bypassing the Interstate 95 corridor, WMATA, Amtrak and Washington DC. The cables are made up of multiple 432 fiber-pairs, each capable of transmitting wavelengths at 100G+ per second. This level of high-performance connectivity is increasingly required by global businesses, government, and education customers running latency-sensitive applications and ensures a quality end user experience.
- The path of the Ashburn Express, inclusive of sections using the Maryland Resource Sharing Agreement, will reduce latency significantly from Maryland's key business centers within Montgomery County, Howard County, Anne Arundel County, Baltimore County, and Baltimore City connecting into Ashburn's unique data center ecosystem. The reduction in latency will allow government and business clients to reach from Maryland to Ashburn without any regen equipment given the sub 40 and sub 80 km specifications for the route's key tie in points.
- Maryland is home to 17 Defense Department installations which, combined, support over 409,000 jobs, and generate over $57 billion in total output and $25.6 billion in wages. More than 50 major federal civilian agencies and research facilities, including the Social Security Administration, Department of Homeland Security and NASA Goddard. Sixteen of the top 20 federal contractors have operations here.
Quotes
- Judd Carothers, Chief Operating Officer, USA FIBER:
"Signing the Resource Sharing Agreement with the State of Maryland, and completing the process end to end in less than 9 months is a major accomplishment. We signed the agreement with Governor Hogan on May 11th, 2016 at a signing ceremony at the capital. What an honor it was to be a part of this process and to work with the state. Their mission is to enable economic growth, technological leadership, create jobs and a great living environment for their citizens. We are proud to have our team based in Hunt Valley, MD and to invest into new infrastructure in Maryland."
The first portion of the Ashburn Express will be built through Montgomery County upon completion of the Potomac River underground bore. Montgomery is home to a robust business community, home to more than 250 biotech companies. Nineteen federal facilities in the county include the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Food and Drug Administration. In addition, the county is home to educational and research organizations such as the Johns Hopkins University's Montgomery County Campus, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Henry M. Jackson Foundation, and the Universities at Shady Grove. Montgomery County's 32,500 businesses employ over 365,000 in areas including information technology, telecommunications, biotechnology, software development, aerospace engineering and professional services. Over 600 businesses employ more than 100 workers. Leading private employers include Adventist, Discovery Communications, GEICO, Giant Food, the Henry M. Jackson Foundation, Kaiser Permanente, Lockheed Martin, Marriott International, and Medimmune. USA FIBER is focused on deploying state of the art underground fiber and conduit infrastructure to support the rapidly growing needs of this community, and the current trend to connect to cloud platforms, Internet bandwidth and network based services providers found in Ashburn.
About USA FIBER: USA FIBER is a purpose built, high capacity, dark fiber network provider. USA FIBER engineers, builds and maintains application and carrier neutral dark fiber networks designed for mission critical customers. This strategy allows clients to connect with their applications and customers, on their own terms. Founded by Ken Goff and Judd Carothers, USA FIBER has deep expertise on staff to engineer, build and manage the most stringent of dark fiber networks, encompassing a history of over 10,000 route miles and 50 years of excellence. USA FIBER owns and operates dark fiber routes and focuses on purpose built new routes that add diversity, performance and scalability for clients' coast to coast. www.USAFIBER.com
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Contact:
Jeremy Latimer
Vice President of Sales
202-697-1429
SOURCE USA FIBER, Inc.
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