US carrier Lightower Fiber Networks is adding about 1,500 route miles to its network on the East Coast.

The company kicked off construction of 1,100 route miles of high-fiber-count network across Virginia and into North Carolina in May 2012. It announced plans to add another 400 miles that will cover the Washington, D.C., metro, including parts of northern Virginia and southern Maryland.

The expansion addresses what the company characterizes as surging demand in the region for high-performance networking solutions from enterprises, educational institutions, as well as government agencies. It adds all-fiber connectivity to data centers located in Ashburn, Culpeper, Richmond and Washington, D.C.

Rob Shanahan, Lightower CEO, said the expansion dramatically increased the number of customers the company could serve in the region. “Lightower will continue to aggressively invest and expand in this region, all in response to the tremendous demand we are seeing here,” he said.

Customers in the expansion areas get access to Lightower's existing 20,000 miles of network and 7,500 service locations across the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast, and Chicago area.

Lightower will rapidly deploy this expansion and start bringing customers online in the fall of 2013. As part of this expansion, Lightower is also investing in expanded sales and support staff for the region.

Cities and towns along the Lightower expansion include:

Washington, D.C.

Bethesda, Maryland

Silver Spring, Maryland

Arlington, Virginia

Alexandria, Virginia

Richmond, Virginia

Reston, Virginia

Herndon, Virginia

Ashburn, Virginia

Newport News, Virginia

Fredericksburg, Virginia

Elizabeth City, North Carolina