Why Look For Fiber Lit Buildings?

Are you familiar with the term “fiber lit building?” It’s a fairly new concept. A fiber lit building is one where fiber optic service is already installed? How do you find them? Just use this handy resource...



The Ethernet Buildings Lit Building Locator is something of a mapping service. Think of it as a treasure map. The treasure itself is the availability of large bandwidth services without the need for expensive construction costs. If you have a need for higher levels of bandwidth, the lit building is where you want to be.

What kind of bandwidth are we talking about? With fiber optic connections, there really isn’t much of an upper limit. You’ll run out of money before you tap out all the bandwidth that can be brought in on fiber. A fiber strand can easily support Gigabit Ethernet or 10 GigE. With wavelength multiplexing, dozens of 10 Gigabit services can be multiplexed onto a single fiber. Most cables have many strands, even dozens or a hundred individual glass fibers bundled together.

Now, in a practical sense terabits per second of bandwidth probably won’t be provisioned to buildings where you would rent space. Even so, it’s nice to know that you can get DS3, OC3, 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet or Gigabit Ethernet bandwidth to support your organization. Those are typical services running over fiber optic connections. Which ones are available will depend on what has been installed in a particular building. If you need a different service, even if it isn’t current installed, you may well be able to request that protocol and bandwidth level with minimal or no construction costs assessed.

How do you find out where the lit buildings are and what type of services are available at them? Simply run a quick inquiry using the Lit Building Locator for a location map. You can then request pricing for particular services of interest.