Zayo lights up European fibre connectivity with Waves on Demand

Global fibre network infrastructure provider Zayo Group has unveiled a Waves on Demand service to deliver what it claims will be unparalleled access to bandwidth across its 400G fully enabled lit fibre network in Europe.

Explaining the rationale of the offer, Zayo cited a recent Omdia survey noting that rapid service activation is the most important feature for buyers of high-capacity services, yet ordering and turning up Wave routes has been getting slower and less flexible across the industry.

Looking to address this issue, Zayo said its new Waves on Demand offer will allow customers to turn up services across Europe within just five working days, significantly reducing service delivery intervals from what the company said is the industry standard of over 30 days.

Based on Ciena’s WaveLogic 5 technology, the new link is designed to enable customers to scale bandwidth efficiently on dedicated, pre-provisioned circuits, reaching up to 800G line side capacity. With its Wavelength offering, Zayo said customers can access industry-leading speed and pricing, including the best available in high-capacity services, with service activation in just five working days.

The new implementation model has been deployed on key connectivity corridors between Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris, Marseille, Bordeaux and Dusseldorf. Coupled with Zayo’s metro network, this capability can be extended to key access locations across Western Europe. Zayo expects to expand this capability to Dublin, Manchester and Milan by the end of this year.

“At Zayo, we’re focused on addressing our customers’ needs now and into the future by connecting what’s next,” said Michael Katz, vice-president for product and technology at Zayo Europe. “We know that turning up Wave capacity can be a long and tedious process, leaving businesses with subpar services that impact their ability to deliver for their customers. Our new Waves on Demand offering will provide our customers with seamless service that is efficient, scalable and cost-effective, meaning they can react in a matter of days to their business and customers’ needs.”

Will Rhodes, director of EMEA carrier managed service partners at Ciena, added: “The industry is crying out for faster turn-up of services. Getting high-capacity connectivity in several days will help to improve Zayo’s wholesale and enterprise customers’ agility and efficiency. This step change will align better with end-user needs and digital experience.”

Six new Zayo subsea cables in Marseille have been scheduled for completion – including key gateways to Asia, Africa and the Middle East – as capacity demands in the city are expected to quadruple by 2026. This, according to Zayo, is creating a rapidly increasing need for enterprises to transport traffic growth from these hubs throughout Europe and to other key commerce centres across the globe.