**Editor’s Note: Please click here for a recap of the biggest channel-impacting mergers in Q2 2013.**

Fiber provider Zayo Group LLC is continuing its buying spree with the $40 million cash purchase of Access Communications Inc.

In the past year, Zayo has snapped up USCarrier assets, FiberGate and Core NAP. Now, the addition of Access gives Zayo a metro bandwidth infrastructure services operator in the Midwest.

Access owns 1,200 miles of metro fiber in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region that connects more than 500 on-net buildings. Access focuses on selling dark fiber services to carriers, enterprises and government agencies, with a particular emphasis on the education vertical.

Given the complementary breadth and depth of its fiber network, the Access transaction is a natural step for Zayo,” said Dan Caruso, president and CEO of Zayo Group. The acquisition is the latest in a series of major investments supporting the growth of our bandwidth infrastructure business in Minnesota.”

Zayo said it expects network and operations integration to move quickly. The transaction is subject to customary approvals.