DC Blox has acquired fiber assets in South Carolina and Georgia to support its upcoming Cable Landing Station (CLS).
The company this week acquired the Southeast network fiber assets owned by network infrastructure and fiber cabling provider Light Source Communications and real estate investor and developer Ascendant Capital Fiber.
The deal includes a dark fiber network in development, to connect South Carolina to Georgia.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but investment firms Post Road Group, Bain Capital, and Ascendant Capital Partners, Light Source’s principal investor, are providing DC Blox with the financial support to accelerate deployment of digital infrastructure across the Southeast.
Announced earlier this month, the company is developing a CLS in n Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The 9MW facility will be able to land up to five cables, and this fiber announcement will support connectivity from the upcoming CLS.
DC Blox said construction is already underway on a long-haul dark fiber route that will run from the Myrtle Beach CLS through Charleston, Augusta, into Atlanta, and landing in Lithia Springs, Georgia. The CLS and the terrestrial dark fiber route are both planned to be completed in 2023.
“The acquisition of these fiber assets and the capabilities of our new team members will provide DC Blox a more comprehensive ability to meet the data center and communications infrastructure requirements of a broader set of customers across the Southeast region,” said Jeff Uphues, CEO of DC Blox. “We look forward to the contributions and leadership of Debra, Pete and Mark to significantly expand our digital infrastructure services capabilities. Moreover, we are grateful for the support we have received from our existing investors, Post Road Group and Bain Capital, and welcome Ascendant Capital Partners, who share our vision and are instrumental to the successful execution of our ambitious growth plans.”
Light Source’s co-founders, CEO Debra Freitas and President and COO Pete Empie, will join DC Blox and will be responsible for continuing to drive the development of new fiber network infrastructure to support the company’s customers and facilities.
“Pete and I are thrilled to join forces with DC Blox, a company we have long admired that has been leading digital infrastructure enablement throughout the Southeast,” said LightSource’s Freitas. “This new fiber route will serve hyperscale customers and communications providers who need high-capacity, economical access to Atlanta from cities and counties to the East all the way to the coast. It will also benefit underserved rural areas across South Carolina and Georgia that are working to build out regional broadband networks for their communities.”
DC Blox has also added Mark Fortier, who most recently served as Vice President, Technology Infrastructure Sales at FiberLight, to develop carrier and hyper-scaler relationships for connectivity and data center solutions.
DCD reported on Horry County officials selling around 20 acres of land at the International Technology and Aerospace Park (ITAP) in April. Although officials didn’t name the company and the purchasing party had been redacted in county documents, the files made reference to DC Blox later in the agenda packet under legal definitions for the land sale.
Myrtle Beach currently does have any cable landing stations, but two cables are due to land there in the near future. Announced last year, Google’s Firmina cable will run from South Carolina in the US to Las Toninas, Argentina, with additional landings in Praia Grande, Brazil, and Punta del Este, Uruguay. The 12-fiber pair cable is named after Brazilian novelist Maria Firmina dos Reis. It is due to launch in 2023.
Confluence 1, from Confluence Networks, will span the US eastern seaboard and run from Sunny Isles, Florida, to Wall Township, New Jersey. It is also due to go live in 2023; both cables are being supplied by Subcom.
