Uniti Group (NASDAQ: UNIT), based in Little Rock, AR, announced a significant network expansion in Huntsville, AL, one of the company’s 30 enterprise markets in the Southeast. This network expansion, covering approximately 70 fiber route miles when complete, will support one of Uniti’s strategic hyperscale customers.
Through a recently signed 20-year contract, Uniti is deploying multiple conduits and high-strand count fiber to its hyperscale customer to connect key data center locations within the Huntsville metropolitan area as well as providing links to diverse, long-haul routes connecting Huntsville to other regional and national data center markets. Uniti plans to deliver these fiber routes over the next two years. Once complete, it will own 190 route miles of dark and lit fiber infrastructure within the Huntsville market.
Greg Ortyl, Uniti’s President of Wholesale & Strategic Accounts says, “With the explosion of generative Artificial Intelligence applications and the related power requirements, we have seen Uniti’s southeastern tier-two and tier-three markets become more attractive to the hyperscaler segment as they identify areas with excess power availability.”
The company points to the Huntsville market as an example of its overall lease-up strategy.
- Launched this market in 2007 for a strategic government customer to connect key locations, then began selling to enterprise customers located near the network, highlighted by a large biotech customer contract in 2015.
- Began providing fiber infrastructure to local school districts beginning in 2016.
- In subsequent years, was awarded several contracts by large wireless carriers to deploy fiber-based Ethernet backhaul to macro cell sites and dark fiber fronthaul to small cells.
- Now counts healthcare organizations, K-12 and higher education institutions, data centers, biotechnology companies, wireless carriers and hyperscalers as customers within this market.
Uniti is currently executing similar strategic densification plans in its existing enterprise markets including Augusta and Columbus, GA; Birmingham, Huntsville, Montgomery and Tuscaloosa, AL; and Shreveport and Monroe, LA. According to the company, each of these metro areas offers growth potential with a concentration of enterprise, medical, financial, government and education customers.
With approximately 140,000 fiber route miles owned and operated as of December 31, 2023, Uniti is the sixth largest fiber network operator in the U.S., according to Inside Towers Intelligence.
By John Celentano, Inside Towers Business Editor
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