Lightower Partners With ByteGrid to Power Mid-Atlantic Business Expansion

BOXBOROUGH, MA--(Marketwired - Feb 25, 2014) -  Lightower Fiber Networks, the premier provider of custom, high-capacity network services that ensure optimal application and business performance, today announced it has established a presence in BYTEGRID's state-of-the-art 214,000 sq. ft. Silver Spring, Maryland data center.

As part of Lightower's continued strategy of aggressive network expansion, Lightower will leverage BYTEGRID's growing presence as a leading network interconnection point to offer turnkey "building-to-cage" and "cage-to-cage" network transport solutions as part of BYTEGRID's "Maryland Connect" program.

In addition to BYTEGRID's data center customers, the agreement makes Lightower's comprehensive suite of fiber-based solutions available to hundreds of new commercial buildings and data centers throughout the mid-Atlantic region.

"BYTEGRID is rapidly establishing itself as Maryland's leading interconnection point and is uniquely qualified to serve as a key point of presence in the Lightower network," said Rob Shanahan, CEO of Lightower. "BYTEGRID's Silver Spring data center's size, power capacity, compliant-grade infrastructure, and track record for continuous uptime allow us to serve the most demanding requirements of large enterprise and Federal Government customers."

Lightower's unique and diverse network is connected to financial exchanges, data centers, stadiums, media and content hubs, carrier exchange points, wireless towers, enterprise locations and more. The company has been expanding in response to surging demand for high-performance networking solutions from area enterprises, educational institutions, as well as government and military agencies. Lightower delivers network services to over 7,500 service locations with more than 20,000 route miles that includes fiber assets in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Chicago metro area as well as critical landing stations and exchanges internationally.

BYTEGRID's Silver Spring campus consists of two data center facilities (MDC1 and MDC2) encompassing 91,000 sq. ft. of computer room floor and 9 MWs of UPS power capacity. MDC1 is the largest multi-tenant data center in Maryland, offering a high availability solution through a concurrently maintainable and fault-tolerant design. Customers have the option to choose from a 1Gig, 10Gig, or Dark Fiber solution, delivered over a private, low-latency network to the campus. The addition of Lightower's premium network creates a state-of-the-art solution for enterprise and government customers seeking to optimize and expand their mission-critical environments.

"Lightower is a significant addition to Maryland Connect and will be well received by large enterprise and Federal Government customers," said Don Goodwin, BYTEGRID's EVP Leasing and Marketing. "Lightower's large core network deployment and data center neutral positioning gives our customers the ability to leverage the entire Lightower footprint both here in the mid-Atlantic and as well as in the northeast and in Chicago."

About BYTEGRID®
BYTEGRID Holdings LLC, is a privately-held company headquartered in Northern Virginia focused exclusively on the nationwide acquisition, development and operation of premier data center facilities. The company serves the growing need for mission-critical data center space by providing highly secure, interconnected, carrier-neutral, and density-robust data centers that serve commercial, government and service provider markets. BYTEGRID currently owns and operates data centers in the Washington, D.C., Atlanta, GA, Cleveland, OH and now Chicago, IL metro area with plans to acquire additional facilities in 2014. The company is led by industry veterans with significant experience in data center operations, design and construction; data center sales and marketing; real estate development and finance; and telecommunications. For more information, please visit www.BYTEGRID.com.

About Lightower Fiber Networks
Lightower Fiber Networks is the premier, all-fiber provider of custom, high-capacity network services that ensure optimal application and business performance. Serving enterprise, government, carrier and data center customers, our comprehensive suite of fiber-based solutions is delivered across a robust, dense and highly-reliable network. The company offers over 20,000 route miles of network, providing access to over 7,500 service locations throughout the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Chicago Metro with connectivity to critical international landing sites. Lightower Fiber Networks is headquartered in Boxborough, MA. For more information, please visit www.lightower.com or call 1.888.LT.FIBER.