Crosslake Fibre, a telecoms operator specialising in connectivity between Canada and the US, has expanded its network into the 1.2 million square foot data center, colocation and telecom carrier hotel 165 Halsey Street, just 13 miles from Manhattan. The new network, which delivers sub-9 ms round trip delay (RTD) performance between Toronto and New York City, is the latest cross-border project from Crosslake following its December 2017 investment from middle-market private equity firm Tiger Infrastructure Partners.
From 165 Halsey Street, customers can now connect to the Crosslake network for connectivity to Toronto and Buffalo, with new Points of Presence (PoPs) in Montreal, Chicago and Ashburn due to go live in Q2 2020, with no monthly recurring cross connect fees.
“Performance is critical whether it be a financial institution trading between the TMX and the New Jersey Liquidity Triangle or consumers accessing high-bandwidth applications like on-demand video and online gaming,” states Mike Cunningham, CEO at Crosslake Fibre. “But as important, having key interconnect facilities, such as 165 Halsey Street, on our network allows those companies that see the value of the networks we build and operate to connect easily with no recurring cross connect costs.”
Foreign ownership restrictions in Canada have historically prevented ownership of fibre by non-Canadian carriers. As a result, the Canadian market is dominated by large incumbents who do not typically sell dark fibre – giving Crosslake a strong position to take advantage of these opportunities, according to its CEO. “Crosslake will enable the purchase of new, diverse dark fibre between Canada and the US, allowing carriers to displace leased fibre and add diversity,” promised Cunningham at the time of the Tiger deal.
In October 2019, Crosslake Fibre completed the first the first new fibre-optic cable constructed between Toronto and New York in almost two decades – a diverse, ultra-low latency route connecting Toronto’s largest carrier hotels (Equinix TR2 at 45 Parliament Street and 151 Front Street West, to Equinix NY4 in Secaucus, New Jersey) along with with multiple extensions to various PoPs in both cities. The cable traverses Lake Ontario from Toronto to New York State utilizing a specialized 192 fiber strand submarine cable 36 miles (58 km) in length.
