[1st-mile-nm] Facebook: Los Lunas Data Center Fiber Connection

[Richard Lowenberg]

 From last month:
Any cooperative regional fiber deployments going in as well?

--------

First-of-its-kind technology headed to Facebook Los Lunas data center

May 23, 2017

http://www.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/news/2017/05/23/first-of-its-kind-technology-headed-to-facebook.html

For the first time at one of its data centers, Facebook is debuting a 
high-capacity, underground fiber cable that will be part of the first 
$250 million phase of its Los Lunas data center set to open in 2018.

"When complete, this cable will stretch 200 miles and be one of the 
highest-capacity systems in the U.S.," said Facebook officials on the 
data center's Facebook page for the site Tuesday.

Facebook officials said the state-of-the-art optical fiber cable being 
constructed for Los Lunas has never been used for one of the entity's 
data centers before and will be 50 percent more efficient when moving 
information compared to high-capacity cables the company has built in 
the past.

"We expect the construction of this new cable will lead to more than 50 
jobs over the next year, which is in addition to the hundreds of jobs 
created by the building of our Los Lunas Data Center," Facebook said in 
the announcement.

Facebook officials confirmed in an email that Missouri-based ADB Cos. is 
the general contractor on the fiber cable, but that all of the 
subcontracting work has been awarded to New Mexico companies.

Those companies include Albuquerque-based Directional Boring, Los 
Lunas-based IHP Construction, Los Lunas-based Volt Inc., 
Albuquerque-based Kelly Cable of NM Inc. Those companies will work on 
directional boring for the cable. Clovis-based Nick Griego and Sons 
Construction Inc. will work on the gravel quarry and hauling, and Las 
Cruces-based Armarc Landscapes is Facebook's hydro seed contractor for 
the project, according to Facebook officials.

Facebook's Los Lunas data center is slated to create around 50 long-term 
jobs, in addition to around 200 to 300 jobs for its initial 
construction. Located in the Huning Ranch Business Park just off 
Interstate 25, the first $250 million phase of the center is set to open 
late next year.

When it opens next year, it will join four other data centers operating 
throughout the U.S.


---------------------------------------------------------------
Richard Lowenberg, Executive Director
1st-Mile Institute     505-603-5200
Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504,
rl at 1st-mile.org     www.1st-mile.org
---------------------------------------------------------------