LAS VEGAS--Under the radar of some of the larger consolidations in the competitive carrier industry, American Fiber Systems is quietly building a CLEC empire in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. Most recently, the company completed its acquisition of IDACOMM, adding the Nevada cities of Las Vegas, Reno, and Carson City as well as Boise, Ida., to its list of cities served.

The company covers multiple tier one markets in 13 states and is always on the lookout for new expansion possibilities, said Dave Rusin, president and CEO.

“We see a lot of one-trick ponies – private equity, utilities or cities who thought it would be a good idea to build a fiber network but couldn’t make the business work,” he said. “With our scale, processes, systems, billing and sales, we can take that asset and make a business case.”

AFS is all an-fiber network, building fiber optics in the metro right to the customer premises. The privately owned company is seeing 40% organic growth in addition to the acquisitions.

“This is meat and potatoes connectivity,” Rusin said. “It’s Ethernet, Sonet, IP into the buildings.” The company’s major vendors are Fujitsu for DWDM gear and Atrica for Ethernet, he said.

AFS tries to avoid using Type 2 connections it buys from incumbents and Rusin said the company explored but rejected using bonded copper connections because it cannot get enough copper lines into buildings to provide the bandwidth its customers want. The company is not providing applications such as VoIP or video, preferring transport and business data including Ethernet, point to point and multipoint, and IP-virtual private networks and Virtual LANs.

At Comptel, Rusin said he was meeting with investment bankers, and looking at as many as 20 properties in which his company has interest.