Lightower Named Authorized Vendor for Commonwealth of Virginia Data Network Services Contract

BOXBOROUGH, MA--(Marketwired - Dec 17, 2015) - Lightower Fiber Networks, the premier provider of all-fiber, high-performance networking solutions delivered over its own network, announced that it has been named an authorized vendor to the Commonwealth of Virginia for Data Network Services. The contract enables Lightower to offer a range of all-fiber networking and high performance Internet services to public bodies, government agencies, non-profit organizations, schools, and libraries, throughout the state. Lightower offers Ethernet, Wavelengths, Dark Fiber, and Internet Access through this award.

All authorized users may use the Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA) broadband Internet services contracts to obtain services for Internet access. Authorized users include all public bodies, including VITA, and all commonwealth agencies as defined by 2.2-4301 and referenced by 2.2-4304 of the Code of Virginia. The award was made in accordance with the terms and conditions stated in Request for Proposal RFP 2015-17 for broadband services.

In August 2013, Lightower first announced construction of more than 1,100 route miles of fiber network blanketing most of Virginia. This Lightower investment into Virginia's infrastructure was completed in November of 2014. Since then, municipalities and government agencies have had access to Lightower's entire suite of high performance networking solutions, including all-fiber access to over 15,000 service locations, including over 250 data centers and multiple cloud service providers including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google and many more. 

"At Lightower, we are excited about this contract award and our opportunity to serve so many different parts of the government in Virginia," commented Rob Shanahan, CEO of Lightower. "The award of this contract solidifies our history of successfully serving high performance networking to government agencies and organizations throughout the country. Agencies and public bodies will be able to rapidly scale their networking capacities and dramatically improve the experience for end users and constituents."

Lightower recently completed a merger with Fibertech Networks, expanding the all-fiber service area to include everywhere between Boston, North Carolina, and Illinois. The new Lightower Network offers more than 30,000 route miles of fiber providing access to more than 15,000 service locations, including over 250 data centers, 500+ telco hotels and central offices, 40+ financial exchanges, and more than 5,000 wireless towers. The company successfully serves state and local government, education, higher education, and research customers in states throughout the Lightower service footprint.

For more information on Lightower and its Government Networking Solutions, please email government@lightower.com, visit the Lightower Government Solutions web page or call 888-LT-FIBER.

About Lightower Fiber Networks
 Lightower Fiber Networks is the premier provider of all-fiber, high-performance networking solutions delivered over our own network, enabling award-winning customer support and service reliability. Lightower delivers customized solutions to thousands of customers in health care, financial services, media and content, cloud infrastructure, carriers, government, education, and other large enterprises. The Lightower Network extends over 30,000 route miles throughout the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest, providing dense connectivity to over 15,000 service locations including 250+ data centers and 5,000+ wireless towers. For more information, visit www.lightower.com or call 1.888.LT.FIBER.