New 500-Mile Dark Fiber Route to Link Data Centers in St. Louis and Tulsa

Light Source Communications (LSC) announced plans to construct a new long-haul dark fiber route between St. Louis and Tulsa. The 500-mile route will include a hyperscale tenant and eight in-line amplifiers (ILAs) to support signal strength across the network.

The route is intended to address increasing regional demand for high-capacity, diverse long-haul dark fiber infrastructure to support hyperscale cloud providers, neocloud platforms, and applications such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and other high-performance computing (HPC) workloads. It will connect data centers in St. Louis and Tulsa, with additional Points-of-Presence (PoPs) planned. Project completion is expected in the third quarter of 2027. The new corridor will also interconnect with LSC’s existing 130-mile dark fiber metro ring in the Tulsa area.

"This route ensures our partners have the massive, diverse capacity they need to move data at the speed of innovation as they scale their most demanding ML and HPC workloads," said Debra Freitas, CEO of LSC.

LSC designs, builds, and operates custom dark fiber infrastructure intended to provide high capacity, low latency, and network diversity. The company states that its fiber networks are constructed entirely underground to support security and reliability requirements for hyperscale and neocloud environments.

The St. Louis–Tulsa announcement follows LSC’s recent introduction of a 240-mile dark fiber network in Indianapolis. That network is planned to include five rings spanning approximately 20 municipalities and providing connectivity to multiple data centers.

LSC reports ongoing construction projects in Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Tulsa, as well as the recent completion of a 35-mile ring in Kansas City. Current projects include a 60-mile route in Las Vegas, a 335+ mile metro ring in Phoenix, and an additional 80 miles of fiber in Tulsa to expand its existing 50-mile network. The company indicates that these networks are being built underground and are supported by hyperscale tenants.

LSC operates as a carrier-neutral, owner-operator of fiber networks serving selected U.S. markets.

Source: Light Source Communications

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