If you want to build a huge, cookie-cutter strip mall, there are plenty of companies that can provide that service. But if you want a small, personally designed building, you may have to seek out a very different kind of company indeed, one that would start with a blank canvas and work with you to paint your vision upon it. The same model holds true in the dark fiber space, especially in the great state of New Jersey.

Cross River Fiber was founded by Vincenzo Clemente, who had a great deal of experience with both startups and dark fiber. The company has been around for just over a year, and it has already carved out a very nice niche for itself, providing dark fiber to companies throughout the state of New Jersey. And, according to CEO Clemente and EVP Michael Sevret, Cross River’s strength lies in its ability to service customers, providing them with fiber optic connectivity in the shortest possible path.


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The company offers diversity and scalability and is an alternative to some of the larger providers out there. It works only with dark fiber and builds from the ground up. Cross River has a great deal of experience in New Jersey, and uses its expertise to secure rights in the more than 500 municipalities in the Garden State. As Sevret says, Cross River’s work is 90 percent planning and 10 percent execution.

Customers have a close, intimate relationship with Cross River and can sit down with the CRF team and plan out exactly what route they want their fiber to take. Often, cutting off a mile of fiber can save nanoseconds on a transaction, which, for a financial services company, can often make a difference of millions of dollars.

Clemente says that the company puts itself in a position to service its customers, giving them extra attention while still having the ability to scale and compete with the larger providers. Cross River is board approved in the state of New Jersey and it builds, maintains and services its network, cutting down on red tape and giving a personal approach.

Even though New Jersey is a small state in square mileage, it has a big reach for telecom. Cross River has almost 200 miles of fiber in the state, servicing companies in the healthcare, education, financial services and other verticals. In the end, Clemente and Sevret point out, all kinds of data, from cellular to cloud computer, comes back to fiber so, for a company that can provide reliability, scalability and ultra low latency fiber in custom deployments, the Garden State is lush with opportunity.

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