An announcement was made by Zayo Group (News - Alert) that it has executed a definitive agreement to purchase a provider of bandwidth infrastructure services throughout the Northeastern and Midwestern United States, First Telecom Services (FTS (News - Alert)).

By year’s end, the $110-million sale is expected to close.

More than 8,000 route miles of fiber and approximately 500 on-net buildings will be added to Zayo's network due to the transaction. With the highest concentration of network and revenue in Ohio and Pennsylvania, FTS has an 11-state footprint in which it is focused on providing dark fiber and wavelength services.

Other telecommunications carriers are primarily its customers.

Currently, Zayo operates in the FTS region. Through long-term indefeasible right of usage (IRU) agreements in which it currently operates, the acquisition will bring new fiber routes to the Zayo footprint as well as provide the company with ownership of fiber routes. When the acquisition closes it is anticipated that since Zayo and FTS have similar products and customers in the FTS region, FTS' products and network footprint will be fully integrated and available to all of Zayo's customers.

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Soon after the company completed the acquisition of FiberGate Inc., the announcement of the pending acquisition came through. In Washington, D.C., Northern Virginia, Baltimore and Suburban Maryland, $117 million in a transaction added 399 new route miles and 130,000 fiber miles to Zayo's network. Creating a combined network of 61,000 route miles and 4.6 million miles of fiber that operates in 45 states and seven countries, Zayo closed its acquisition of AboveNet for $2.2 billion three months earlier.

Zayo completed the $18-million acquisition of Arialink in May that added 930 route miles to its network, including 400 miles of dense metro networks in Lansing and Ann Arbor, Mich. Across a 437 on-net building footprint, together with a regional long-haul network and connectivity to smaller markets in central Michigan, Zayo obtained Ethernet, dark fiber and optical transport services.