Crosslake CEO Mike Cunningham breaks down Metered Dark Fibre (MDF) — Crosslake’s world-first approach to dark fibre that gives buyers the full technical performance of a dedicated fibre pair, with a flexible, usage-based commercial model. Mike also walks through the three core use cases where MDF delivers the greatest value.
What is Metered Dark Fibre?
Metered Dark Fibre is a Crosslake Fibre original — a dark fibre service built around a pay-for-what-you-use commercial structure. Buyers get exclusive access to a dedicated fibre pair with all the same technical characteristics, performance, security, and control of traditional dark fibre. The difference is in how it’s priced: rather than committing to the full cost of a fibre pair upfront, customers choose how much spectrum they want to light and pay only for what they use — scaling up or down as their requirements change.
It’s dark fibre, plain and simple, with a commercial model designed for how networks actually grow.
Unlike wavelength or spectrum services, MDF is not a managed service. Customers bring their own equipment and operate their own optical layer — gaining the same unlimited scalability and routing control that dark fibre provides, while avoiding the large fixed costs that have traditionally made it inaccessible to all but the largest buyers.
The Three Use Cases
1. Scale from Zero
For organisations introducing a new route or building capacity from the ground up, MDF removes the financial barrier of traditional dark fibre. Rather than committing to a large fixed cost before a single byte of traffic crosses the fibre, buyers can start small, light only what they need, and scale as customer wins and traffic growth justify it. This pay-as-you-grow model ensures a tangible return on investment at every stage — removing uncertainty around timing and capacity requirements without locking in heavy capital obligations early.
2. Migrate a Route
Network migrations typically force a painful choice: duplicate costs by running two routes in parallel, or rush the transition and accept risk. MDF changes the equation. Because there’s no long-term commitment and no need to mirror hardware upfront, organisations can migrate card by card, at their own pace, without duplicating large fixed costs. Endpoints can be changed without triggering substantial additional capital expenditure — making MDF a practical tool for organisations moving from legacy infrastructure, consolidating suppliers, or transitioning to new physical routes.
3. Restore and Protect
Redundancy and protection are non-negotiable for carriers and enterprises with demanding SLAs — but the cost of maintaining a full standby dark fibre route has historically made long-haul redundancy prohibitive. MDF addresses this directly. By metering usage on the protection path, organisations can maintain genuine long-haul redundancy at a fraction of the cost of traditional dark fibre protection — ensuring fast recovery when the primary route fails, without paying for a fully lit standby at all times.
