Atlantic Broadband is bidding to become one of the big boys in US cable. The one-time cable overbuilder took another key step in that direction late last week by striking a deal to buy the entire South Florida fiber network of FiberLight for just over $50 million, fueling its business services drive.

A subsidiary of the large Canadian MSO Cogeco Communications (Toronto: CCA), Atlantic Broadband has grown rapidly through acquisitions over the past several years to become the ninth-largest traditional cable MSO in the US with more than 400,000 customers in 11 states. In its most recent move earlier this month, it closed a $1.4 billion deal to buy MetroCast, a smaller cableco with 236,000 customers in five states. (See Atlantic Broadband Closes Deal With MetroCast for $1.4B and Atlantic Broadband Takes MetroCast Express.)

Now, with the expected closing of its deal with FiberLight LLC in about six months, Atlantic Broadband will add roughly 350 route miles to its existing South Florida fiber footprint, more than doubling its fiber presence in the region. Even more immediately, the cable provider will gain access to an abundance of dark fiber capacity that it can use to start serving more large enterprises and carriers in the growing commercial corridor running up the Atlantic coast from downtown Miami to North Palm Beach. For more on this story, please turn to our sister site, Broadband World News. (See Atlantic Broadband Plans Florida Fiber Feast.)

— Alan Breznick, Cable/Video Practice Leader, Light Reading