Underneath the Indiana Toll Road lies a new fiber-optic network that runs from the Ohio border to downtown Chicago, reported WVPE-TV. The project was a collaboration between the Indiana Toll Road Concession Company, Vivacity Networks, which designed, built, and installed the fiber, and Digital Crossroad, which operates a data center on the Indiana/Illinois border.
On Thursday, Indiana’s Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch promoted the network at an event. “We are so proud to be supportive of broadband efforts going on all over the state of Indiana,” Crouch said. “This revolutionary project will bring the world’s fastest fiber networks closer than ever to every community along the Indiana Toll Road.”
The network was built in the toll road’s right-of-way and offers “a very fast round trip ping of about 3.5 milliseconds,” reported WVPE-TV. “Everybody who wants to use this is going to basically be able to deliver speeds and deliver access at a level that wasn’t before available,” said Digital Crossroad managing member Tom Dakich.
According to Vivacity CEO Scott Bergs, now that the groundwork is laid, ISPs can focus on upgrading local connections to tap into the network. “We’re providing a wholesale, open access, lower cost, already built, really route mile efficient dark fiber backbone,” Bergs said. “It can’t happen from one provider; it has to be us all working in collaboration and delivering this as efficiently as we possibly can if we’re going to achieve the goal of better broadband for everyone.”
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