 Welcome to JSA TV, where we're covering the latest stories, trends and innovations from leaders in global connectivity digital infrastructure and the networks within. I'm Allison Whelan and joining me today is Patton Lockridge of Ban with IG. Today we're going to be chatting a little bit about dark fiber across key US data center markets. So Patton, welcome. Thank you so much for joining me. Thank you so much for having me. Of course, so Ban with IG is one of the fastest growing pure play dark fiber companies in the US with networks in all of the key markets. Can you tell us more about your networks and why you chose in those specific markets? Sure, networks and markets. I mean, I think start with the networks. I think it's relevant to explain the way that we've like the physical asset, the way that we've built it and then explain kind of where we take it because I think it's a little bit different than what we typically see in the market. So we've you mentioned we're pure play dark fiber infrastructure provider and that is true. And thus we have a set of customers that are really the largest consumers of bandwidth in the world. That's naturally going to get going to be who demands dark fiber. So they're pretty peculiar about the way that they want their networks built. So if you go into a big network, Ban with IG market and you look at the asset, it's going to be built almost exactly the same in every market that we're in. It's 100% underground. It's essentially maxing out conduit induct packages in the right way, pulling large high count cables. So trying to solve for scalability and we'll do it in right of way that we procure and that we build in that's typically unique and typically different from some of the incumbents that already exist in that market. That's how we think we had value. So it's really truly purpose built. Absolutely. There's definitely that value and scalability. That's what we're after. And then the markets, you know, why are we in the markets that we're in and why are we going in the markets that we're going to? Well, naturally, a lot of these customers that we work with, they're in the data centers, right? And one thing I didn't mention about our networks is that we build express routes between data centers. So that's another differentiator. We're not trying to splice out and take fiber, a pair here, a pair there to every cell tower, every enterprise building. Others do that. That's important for the market in general, but it's not where we fit in. We truly build undisturbed kind of express routes in between the centers of compute. So data centers, third party data centers, you know, cloud campuses, carrier hotels, anything where you have a big core central nucleus of compute is where we want to be. And so when we're going into markets, naturally that ecosystem needs to either exist or we think it's going to exist sometime in the future. And so that's kind of why we're in the markets that we're in, is those data center ecosystems really exist. And the second thing we look at is, and this is usually not a hard one, is we'll go into a market and for that type of application in the infrastructure that is needed in these markets, from a fiber infrastructure standpoint, typically doesn't exist. And so that's important for us. If it doesn't exist, we want to be there to make it available to our customers. Every market has fiber, but it's not all built equally. It's not all built the same way. It's not all built the way that our customers need it. So that's kind of, that's our network and that's why we go where we go. Strategic targeting there. And dark fiber is such a critical piece of the network pie. How are things like cloud computing and AI, which I'm sure we'll talk about all week here at Metro Connect, but things like AI contributing to the need for more dark fiber? Yeah, I mean, that's everything to us, right? I mean, obviously cloud computing happens in the data center. And so it's those customers that we partner most closely with. And so, yes, they are driving the dark fiber industry. And, you know, I think you've got four major cloud providers, right? Their trajectory has been steepened to the right for years, right? And that's just for cloud computing. Right. And so we're a big part of helping them solve that. And there's many private cloud providers and others that we work with as well. I think the second part of that question is kind of how it's changing and how it's giving rise to more demand. Let's just talk AI. Right. Because cloud computing's been happening for a while. AI in recent, you know, 12, 24 months, there's absolutely unprecedented demand for compute, space, power to solve this. Just kind of like, I can't think of a better word than unprecedented in terms of the amount of demand that we're seeing for data centers, space and power. And with that is going to require more fiber. Because the fiber, oh sorry, because these facilities demand so much power, everybody's only talking about power, power, power. Right. And it's just driving a lot of these developers and these hyperscalers and so forth out of a traditional metro and into more kind of semi-rural, kind of deep suburbia. And so I think kind of the way that it's contributing to more development in dark fiber and changing that is it's no longer just sitting in the middle of a metro where fiber was considered fungible. It's just sort of around. Right. That's not the way it is anymore. Now, you know, way outside of the metro, the worst thing you can do is build a big 100 megawatt facility and then not have fiber to it. So we're spending a lot more time, way in advance of these developments with our data center partners, our hyperscale partners and those that are interested in driving this development to ensure that we're getting, you know, multiple routes, built the way we build it out to these new locations that haven't existed before. Absolutely. Fiber is key. Yeah. AI just doesn't happen on its own, right? No. And to talk about markets a little bit more, last month you announced a big network expansion in San Francisco. Congratulations, by the way. So exciting for your team. What additional plans do you have to keep up with the demand for more dark fiber in areas like San Francisco or these other markets that we discussed? Yeah. I mean, I think San Francisco was textbook kind of market for us to enter. And you have a very robust data center ecosystem that already exists in that market, right? So that's something that I don't think it's maybe second behind Northern Virginia is the most critical IT load and one central in geography. So for us to come in and interconnect a lot of those facilities and keep up with that growth was a very natural thing for us to do. There were a lot of kind of older telecommunications networks in the ground that, like I said, may serve the purpose for enterprise locations, may send packets up and down office buildings, but are not quite cut out for kind of the new AI compute requirements and data center compute requirements. So that was a very natural place for us to come in and kind of change that market from a fiber perspective. I think we'll continue to look for markets like that and grow into more markets like that as those demand signals come. And really in our existing markets, data centers used to just be fine with a route in a route out. No problem. You know, fiber piece of this is done. That's totally changed now. You're seeing tenants of these data centers say, no, no, no, I need three routes, I need four routes and not just entrances that are unique, but actual paths through the metros that are completely unique from a tertiary or even a quadrier, whatever word that is, four routes to solve kind of their minimum requirement. So that's kind of what we're up to. Well, you guys are definitely busy and congratulations again on the growth. It was great getting to catch up with you and see you and thank you viewers for tuning in to JSA TV. Thanks a lot.