It’s been yet another exciting and busy week in the world of dark fiber. Here are some of the top stories we’ve been following this week.

FirstLight Fiber has announced the launch of better Carrier Ethernet that complies with industry standards. This will let service providers provide better service to customers in remote areas.

“Enhancing our already robust portfolio of Metro Ethernet solutions, FirstLight's offering of Ethernet Access service represents our Company's ongoing commitment to support our carrier customers with the newest, most progressive technologies,” said Brian Kurkowski, CTO at FirstLight Fiber. “Few carriers have ubiquitous networks, so being able to leverage FirstLight's extensive fiber network throughout Upstate New York and Northern New England will allow our carrier customers to better serve their clients.”

Verizon has also been busy, investing over $400 million in Massachusetts, with much of that going to building fiber networks.

“Verizon (News - Alert)'s investment in Massachusetts in recent years has been unprecedented," said Allison G. Cole, Verizon's New England region president of consumer and mass markets. "In the past five years our company has invested more than $2 billion in Massachusetts. No company has done more. Massachusetts is a leader in technology, education and healthcare, and the new state-of-the-art Verizon wireless and fiber-optic networks play a huge role in that. The technology sector continues to be an engine that is driving the Massachusetts economy.”

While Silicon Valley gets a lot of attention, it’s nice to see another major hub of technology as the home if MIT (News - Alert) and former companies like Digital Equipment Corporation get some press.

Heading westward, Wolfe has recently opened a  point-of-presence (POP) at ColoXchange, a colocation facility in Las Vegas. While the city is best known for its hotels and casinos, a number of companies are locating their data centers there.

“Businesses are now exploring Las Vegas for data center services because of its extremely low instance of natural catastrophes, large fiber footprints, and a pro corporate tax environment. With the new relationship between Wolfe.net and ColoXchange we are able to meet the high-bandwidth connectivity demands of companies worldwide,” Paul Reynosa (News - Alert) from ColoXchange said. Wolfe offers a 100 gigabit backbone to customers.

There are more topics than we could possibly cover in this small space, so please feel free to check out our other top stories this week and stay tuned for even more exciting news all through next week.