Ziply Fiber Strengthens Wholesale Data Center Position in Washington State

Lynnwood’s new option

Like its latest network build in Quincy, Washington, Ziply Fiber’s Lynnwood, Washington, is no less significant. Lynnwood hosts major commercial and enterprise data center facilities, serving the broader Seattle metropolitan technology market.

The service provider is now an on-net carrier at Csquare’s Lynnwood data center campus (SEA1), located at 17300 Hwy 99 in Lynnwood, Washington. Adding Ziply Fiber to Csquare Lynnwood gives enterprises, managed service providers, cloud operators, and regulated-industry customers a direct fiber path into one of the Seattle metro area’s most capable carrier-neutral colocation facilities. Customers can also get access to wholesale services from AT&T, Comcast and Lumen.

Csquare Lynnwood spans more than 103,920 square feet, including 62,395 square feet of raised floor colocation space, and is situated 15 miles north of Seattle with direct access to Interstate 5. The facility holds SOC 1 Type 2, SOC 2 Type 2, SOC 3, PCI DSS, and ISAE-3402 certifications, making it a key option for various industry verticals, including healthcare, financial services, aerospace, and other compliance-sensitive sectors. Ziply Fiber’s connectivity is now available to all current and prospective Csquare Lynnwood customers looking for a high-capacity fiber carrier.

Lynnwood, Washington, Csquare also features Amazon Web Services (AWS) Direct Connect and Seattle Internet Exchange (SIX) peering. It also runs on 96% sustainable hydroelectric power.

Gellos said that providing connectivity into Lynnwood deepens its presence in the Seattle metro area.

“Part of the commercial strategy for Ziply Fiber is to interconnect data centers and allow them to utilize our transport network,” he said. “The Lynnwood facility is on the north end of Seattle. We also have facilities that are on the southern end as well as throughout the core of the Seattle metro area.”

He added that the Lynnwood area is another option for customers who want to locate north of Seattle.  

“There are multiple businesses that operate just north of the city that have sites for disaster recovery or additional infrastructure that they want co-located; they seek out these facilities,” Gellos said. “Data centers are in high demand, so this was a very good one for us to build into because it serves multiple enterprise customers as well as wholesale carriers.”

Repurposing traditional COs

Expanding into Lynnwood and other data center markets in Washington state supports Ziply Fiber’s broader colocation and data center strategy.

In 2024, the company launched leasable colocation services at more than 200 secure facilities across its four-state footprint, repurposing hardened telco central office buildings freed up during Ziply Fiber’s five-year transition from copper to fiber.

A big part of that strategy stems from Ziply’s 2020 purchase of Frontier Communications' Pacific Northwest operations, which included copper- and fiber-based assets housed in legacy central offices.

Ziply Fiber’s ongoing effort to transform legacy COs into data centers continues to evolve. The service provider has eight that will be released in about the next 18 months.

“When we acquired the network, we immediately overbuilt the entirety of the network with fiber,” Gellos said. “And it's really two new networks that were operating over that same footprint and where we've expanded.”

Repurposing traditional COs that for decades housed power-hungry, bulky Class 5 voice switches as data centers offers energy and environmental benefits for the communities Ziply is present in today.

While traditional COs housed equipment that used to take up an entire facility to run a voice network, for example, it used to take up an entire facility, and now it's in a rack, and it's just a server.

Gellos said its efforts are being well received in the communities it serves today.

“It does a couple of things for us and, frankly, for the community,” Gellos said. “One is that electricity consumption is diminished dramatically. “So, there's the benefit of savings for us, but there's also the benefit of power. As we're able to lower our power consumption, some of that can be reutilized for co-location needs for customers that are looking for power.”

Ziply Fiber can now serve customers on a power grid without increasing that grid's consumption.

“It's a really effective use of the power and the facility in an era where so many municipalities are looking at data center moratoriums and wanting to understand the impacts, environmental impacts better,” Gellos said. “We're able to do that without making an impact, actually improving things by our own diminishing electricity needs.” 

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