FIERCE TELECOM (Sean Buckley) – September 23, 2013 – Tech Valley Communications has rebranded itself as FirstLight Fiber, a name that it says reflects its ongoing transition as a CLEC serving only the Upstate New York market to one that serves multiple Northeast states and Canada.
While the overall company name is new, it has been present since 2005 as the name of its fiber network.
“In the early to mid-2000s, we sub-branded our fiber network as First light,” said Kevin O’Connor, chief executive officer of FirstLight Fiber, in an interview with FierceTelecom. “It was kind of like Intel inside that you saw the computer makers do so it’s a name we had for some time now. Now that we’re in five states and Canada, the name Tech Valley has less resonance to people in those other states than those in Upstate New York.”
O’Connor added he thinks the new name “will have some resonance across our footprint and is generally speaking of what it is that we are in business to do, which is to build fiber optic connectivity in many of the markets we operate in.”
A key part of the service provider’s strategy is to grow out is network organically and through targeted acquisitions of other regional fiber-centric service providers.
In just the past two years, it has been expanding its fiber network by acquiring segTEL and TelJet, two deals that helped establish instant presence in Northern New England and into Canada.
To date, it has 190,000 fiber miles with 1,300 on-net buildings throughout the territories it serves.
As it continued to weave together a larger network, the service provider has been also enhancing its management team, including naming 20-year telecom veteran Maura Mahoney as its new senior director of marketing and product management.
Looking forward, O’Connor said that they have some other potential deals it may complete by the end of 2013.
“If not by the end of this year I think we may be having a few other announcements on some inorganic growth opportunities throughout the Northeast,” he said. “We still have a strong appetite for M&A as well as organic growth in the company.”