Lightower Splits Fiber from Wireless

Last year Boxborough, MA-based National Grid Wireless changed its name to Lightower, reflecting the company’s purchase by M/C Venture Partners and Wachovia Capital Partners. Now it’s going through another transition, splitting its wireless-infrastructure and digital-fiber-optics businesses into two separate entities, Lightower Wireless and Lightower Fiber. Lightower said in an announcement today that demand for its wireless communications towers is growing much faster than demand for its dark fiber network, and that the company needed to bring in a seasoned leader to focus on reviving the fiber business. That person will be Rob Shanahan, co-founder and former CEO of Conversent Communication. Doug Wiest will continue as CEO of Lightower Wireless.

Author: Wade Roush

Between 2007 and 2014, I was a staff editor for Xconomy in Boston and San Francisco. Since 2008 I've been writing a weekly opinion/review column called VOX: The Voice of Xperience. (From 2008 to 2013 the column was known as World Wide Wade.) I've been writing about science and technology professionally since 1994. Before joining Xconomy in 2007, I was a staff member at MIT’s Technology Review from 2001 to 2006, serving as senior editor, San Francisco bureau chief, and executive editor of TechnologyReview.com. Before that, I was the Boston bureau reporter for Science, managing editor of supercomputing publications at NASA Ames Research Center, and Web editor at e-book pioneer NuvoMedia. I have a B.A. in the history of science from Harvard College and a PhD in the history and social study of science and technology from MIT. I've published articles in Science, Technology Review, IEEE Spectrum, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Technology and Culture, Alaska Airlines Magazine, and World Business, and I've been a guest of NPR, CNN, CNBC, NECN, WGBH and the PBS NewsHour. I'm a frequent conference participant and enjoy opportunities to moderate panel discussions and on-stage chats. My personal site: waderoush.com My social media coordinates: Twitter: @wroush Facebook: facebook.com/wade.roush LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/waderoush Google+ : google.com/+WadeRoush YouTube: youtube.com/wroush1967 Flickr: flickr.com/photos/wroush/ Pinterest: pinterest.com/waderoush/