When Dark Fiber Makes Sense

If an enterprise has requirements for four or more optical wavelengths, it makes more financial sense to lease dark fiber and light its own network, at least in Western Europe, say analysts at The Yankee Group. The savings for the dark fiber approach are 40 percent over leasing four wavelengths, Yankee Group says. The economics work for cross-border and national networks. Since such deals involved distance-sensitive pricing, however, route length and the type and number of wavelengths can affect the analysis. For four or more wavelengths, savings between 13 percent and 70 percent are potentially achievable by leasing fiber. Bigger savings occur when bandwidth has to be bumped up. The incremental cost of additional new wavelengths on a dark fiber infrastructure is only 10 percent to 15 percent of the cost of adding a new wavelength.