Partnerships within the telecommunications industry are common, especially in fiber deployment to extend high-speed capabilities to small businesses and new buildings. Cbeyond (News - Alert) recognized the value offered by FiberLight and instigated a formal partnership agreement.

According to this SMB Nation report, this partnership will enable Cbeyond to make use of the FiberLight (News - Alert) backbone to extend its fiber reach to SMBs and new buildings throughout the U.S. This partnership will help Cbeyond to fulfill its goal of lighting 1,000 buildings by the end of 2013.

Cbeyond set out on a mission to move away from its T1 origins to optimize on the opportunities available in fiber. The company also wanted to extend services to underserved and unserved segments of the market by bringing Metro Ethernet to more of its customer base. The company plans to extend Metro Ethernet to 50 percent by the end of next year.

The company also established a clear initiative to transition 28 percent of its access customers to Metro Ethernet by the end of 2013. At present, Cbeyond extends Metro Ethernet to 22 percent of its customers by way of Ethernet-over-Copper technology.

To further extend its value in the marketplace, Cbeyond also initiated a partnership with Zayo, a provider of network-neutral colocation and fiber-based bandwidth infrastructure. With this partnership, Cbeyond will rely on Zayo’s infrastructure to deliver high-speed bandwidth connectivity by way of dark fiber.

In the Metro Ethernet provider’s densest markets, Cbeyond hopes to provide more than 600 buildings with fiber. Additionally, the company has also expanded on its executive team with the addition of Chris Ortbals and Matthew Stevens. Ortbals will serve as the Vice President of Cloud Services Product Management and Development, as Stevens takes the role of Vice President of Professional Services.

This Telecom Ramblings report shows that the initiatives with both Zayo and FiberLight are not to support a minor build out. Both companies offer value as Cbeyond focuses on extending fiber and Metro Ethernet to support demand and complete its realignment.

In reported earnings, Cbeyond showed revenues of $123.8 million, EBITDA of $23 million and a net loss of $1.2 million. Finals results are not outside of industry expectations. And, as the company’s cloud services continue to expand, the company reported $4 million in revenue in the first quarter. At just three percent of the company’s revenues, this number is still small, yet expected to continue to grow.