Cisco chosen as exclusive supplier for 2500-mile Midwest fiber network

US Signal announced today it has chosen Cisco Systems as its exclusive provider for optical networking equipment to light its established 2500-mile dark-fiber network. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The deal will allow US Signal to “offer highly cost-competitive, robust connectivity in the underserved Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets across the Midwest,” said Barry Raterink, president and CEO of US Signal in a statement.

Cisco will provide products from its complete optical multiservice edge and transport (COMET) line, including the ONS 15454 metro optical transport platform that will enable the carrier’s carrier to “maximize service density with scalable transport” from DS-1 to OC-192, according to US Signal.

Also to be deployed is the ONS 15327 metro edge optical transport platform--expected to extend US Signal’s advanced optical transport network to the metro edge and speed deployment of new high-value services--and the ONS 15216 metro dense wave division multiplexing line. US Signal said the DWDM line will let it achieve “radical economics” by deploying more services per wavelength and more wavelengths per fiber.

US Signal provides high-speed capacity, dark fiber and co-location services to wholesale customers in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. The company’s network consists of 500 route miles of metro rings around 14 Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets, plus 2000 route miles of long-haul fiber connecting the metro rings.

--Glenn Bischoff, senior news writer