PORTLAND, Maine — Oxford Networks has merged with another data center and fiber-optic cable company based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in a move combining 2,000 miles of fiber-optic networks in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
Lewiston-based Oxford Networks on Thursday announced the merger with BayRing Communications. It did not disclose the terms of the merger, which still is subject to approval by the Federal Communications Commission.
Craig Gunderson, president of the 120-employee Oxford Networks, said the move “will allow the companies to leverage a significantly larger fiber network and data center infrastructure.”
Oxford Networks owns a fiber-optic cable network spanning from Bangor to Boston, with loops through central Maine and a line from Portsmouth to Manchester, New Hampshire. BayRing has fiber-optic cables through more of central New Hampshire.
The now combined Oxford and BayRing compete for customers on its fiber-optic network with other providers, such as FairPoint Communications, which claims about 16,000 miles of fiber-optic cable in the region. In April, FairPoint announced it began offering data center services to businesses, seeing a demand for cloud providers to have satellite data centers closer to markets in which they operate.
The telecom industry news site Fierce Telecom reported in April that FairPoint plans to convert some of its existing central offices into data centers in New Hampshire and Vermont but did not specify a timeline for the move.
Oxford Networks in September completed a $6 million expansion of its high-security data center at the redeveloped Navy base, Brunswick Landing. The expansion came after an investment from the Canadian private equity firm Novacap, which paid about $50 million to buy the company in January.