ST. LOUIS -- LightCore, a regional fiber transport provider in the central states, has expanded its network reach into East St. Louis and Collinsville, Ill., and is now providing dual, ring-protected fiber optic routes across the Mississippi River.

Until now carriers and service providers had limited network alternatives between the west and east portions of the St. Louis metropolitan area.

“This network expansion is in response to strong and growing demand from our carrier customers,” said Matt Porterfield, senior vice president of sales and marketing for LightCore. “Our company is headquartered in St. Louis and has been serving the market for a number of years, but we never extended our network to the east side of the river. Twenty-five percent of the St. Louis area population now lives in Illinois, making it a market opportunity that’s simply too large for our customers to ignore."

LightCore installed two, physically diverse fiber optic cable routes across the Mississippi River. It also established a new point of presence, or POP, in Collinsville, where its customers can connect to the network. The new routes began carrying customer traffic last week.

LightCore