**Editor’s Note: Please click


here


for a recap of the biggest channel-impacting mergers in Q3 2012 or


here

for the biggest M&A during that time in the service-provider and BSS/OSS spaces.**

Zayo Group’s buying spree continued on Friday with plans to acquire Baltimore, Md.-based Litecast, a provider of metro bandwidth-infrastructure services. The deal, pending typical closing conditions, is worth $22 million and is expected to close by the end of the month.

Litecast owns and operates a metropolitan fiber network in Baltimore, connecting more than 110 on-net buildings, including all of the city’s major data centers and carrier hotel facilities. Litecast focuses on providing dark fiber and Ethernet-based services to a concentrated set of enterprises and governmental customers, particularly within the health-care and education segments.

Zayo expects the acquisition to further enhance its fiber network in the greater Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area, complementing the recently acquired AboveNet and FiberGate networks in the Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia. Zayo will be positioned to offer Litecast customers a broad set of bandwidth-infrastructure products across its regional, national and international fiber networks. In addition, Zayo will offer Baltimore fiber-based services to its existing carrier customer base.

Zayo predicts a quick network and operations-integration process considering Litecast’s concentrated network geography, focused product set and size.