Strome takes over Allied Fiber Atlanta-Miami assets
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Strome takes over Allied Fiber Atlanta-Miami assets

US operator Strome Fiber Holdings has taken over the former assets of an Allied Fiber subsidiary in the south-east of the country.

According to Strome, the acquired network and colocation assets include a dark fibre network along secure private rights of way from Atlanta, Georgia, to Miami, Florida. The network includes interconnection to key data centres in both markets and strategic access points in between.

“We are pleased to announce this acquisition, along with new products and services to provide value for our customers,” said Scott Drake, CEO of Strome Networks. “We are focused on our customers’ needs, and we tailor custom solutions and services for them. Our network is fast and of the highest quality and lowest latency existing today between key internet peering markets in the south-east.”

The Allied Fiber subsidiary that Strome has acquired, for sum believed to be $24 million, was AF-Southeast, one of a number of businesses within the group that went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this year.

According to a US legal news service, law360.com, a Delaware court approved the sale of AF-Southeast to Strome Mezzanine Fund IV, which was the only qualified bidder ahead of an auction, which was called off.

The investment fund was owed $51 million in earlier loans to AF-Southeast, said law360.com. AF-Southeast had planned a fibre network right along the east coast of the US, but had completed only the Miami-Atlanta section.

Law360.com reported that parties holding indefeasible right of use (IRU) agreements with AF-Southeast objected to the sale, but the objections were overcome before the sale was completed.

Strome said that all former AF-Southeast customer contracts were assumed in the asset purchase agreement along with all key network and vendor agreements.

Strome Networks owns and operates a dark fibre network from Miami to Jacksonville, with over 110,000 optical miles of available capacity, a Georgia dark fibre network of approximately 63,000 optical miles of available capacity continuing from Jacksonville to Atlanta and eleven Type-II data and colocation facilities along the route.

One of the earlier concerns was that some of the rights of way agreement were signed by parent company Allied Fiber, not AF-Southeast.

AF-Southeast’s debts when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May, totalled $119 million. Costs of building the Miami-Atlanta network were put at $90 million, including $27 million spent on rights of way for the north-east US, projects that have not been completed.





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