News for and about the Internet2 community

["Moore, Gregory A" <>]

Zayo Bandwidth and I-Light to expand broadband services to Ivy Tech through 
federal stimulus award

Indiana University president praises plan to complete I-Light vision

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Feb. 18, 2010

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Zayo Bandwidth, a regional provider of fiber-based 
bandwidth infrastructure solutions, announced today in partnership with 
I-Light that it has received $25.1 million from the American Recovery and 
Reinvestment Act to connect 21 Ivy Tech Community College campuses to the 
I-Light network, Indiana's high-performance, optical-fiber telecommunications 
network for research and education. The award will also allow Zayo to expand 
broadband connectivity across the state of Indiana to unserved and 
underserved areas. 

Zayo Bandwidth will build 626 miles of new 96-strand fiber across the state 
to complete this project and provide new jobs. Two strands of fiber will be 
dedicated to connect 21 Ivy Tech campuses to I-Light, which connects to the 
nation's most advanced educational and research networks Internet2 and 
National LambdaRail. 

"Indiana was a pioneer in 1999 when the state invested $5.3 million to create 
the nation's first optical research and education network that was owned and 
operated by higher education," noted IU President Michael A. McRobbie. "That 
original network connected the state's major research universities with great 
success. In 2005, the state began expanding I-Light to connect all 
institutions of higher education to I-Light. This federal award greatly 
accelerates that vision by connecting the remaining Ivy Tech campuses." 

Ivy Tech President Thomas J. Snyder said, "This investment of stimulus money 
for broadband is especially timely for the growing needs of Ivy Tech. It 
gives vastly improved connectivity among all Ivy Tech campuses, and connects 
our students and faculty to the best educational resources that use high 
speed networks. This grant helps increase the overall efficiency for higher 
education in the state." 

Zayo will also make broadband services available to as many as 80 communities 
along the fiber path that presently meet federal guidelines as unserved or 
underserved, including more than 480,000 households, 49,000 businesses and 
thousands of health, public safety, education and government centers. 

The project, totaling $31.8 million overall and expected to be completed in 
three years, is also supported by Zayo matching funds and in-kind 
contributions and investments from Ivy Tech, Indiana University, Ball State 
University and Purdue University. 

"Zayo is committed to continually expanding our bandwidth network to unserved 
and underserved areas for our customers," said Dan Caruso, Zayo Group 
President and CEO. "We are honored to be a part of this exceptional 
collaboration to support the success of Indiana educational institutions." 

"This major investment continues I-Light's remarkable public-private 
partnership to serve education," said Brad Wheeler, IU vice president for IT 
& CIO. "This project for Ivy Tech will add 600 miles of fiber to I-Light's 
existing 1,200 miles across the state." 

The I-Light connections for Ivy Tech will offer increased capacity for 
collaboration and innovation in education and research across institutional 
and geographic boundaries. Currently there are 41 Indiana higher education 
sites connected to the I-Light network. 

"Cross-institutional collaboration for research and education allows for more 
rapid scientific breakthroughs and expanded educational opportunities, 
provides substantial cost savings and leads to accomplishment beyond what any 
one organization is capable of achieving alone," said McRobbie. "The 
connection of schools via I-Light is an essential tool for realizing this 
type of collective success within the state of Indiana." 

McRobbie noted that the operational parts of the I-Light network are already 
a catalyst for revamping the state's economy to a greater role in research 
and education in the life and health sciences, enabling, for example, the 
state's single School of Medicine to effectively deliver distributed 
education programs to its 8 Medical Education Centers across the state. 

I-Light fiber connections made possible by the federal stimulus funding 
include Ivy Tech campuses in Anderson, Bloomington (2 locations), Columbus, 
Connersville, East Chicago, Elkhart, Evansville, Fairbanks, Fort Wayne, Gary, 
Kokomo, Lafayette, Lawrenceburg, Madison, Marion, Michigan City, Monticello, 
Muncie, Valparaiso and Warsaw. 

About Zayo Bandwidth

Zayo Bandwidth, a wholly owned subsidiary of Zayo Group, owns and operates 
fiber optic networks totaling over 20,000 fiber route miles. Zayo Bandwidth 
(www.zayo.com/bandwidth) offers services in 141 markets spanning 23 states. 
Zayo Bandwidth's mission is to provide responsive bandwidth infrastructure 
solutions and a strong and growing network. 

About I-Light

I-Light dramatically improves Indiana's position as a national leader in very 
high-speed networking in support of teaching, learning, research, technology 
transfer and inter-institutional collaboration and cooperation, activities 
that will help fuel the state's economy. Network management for I-Light is 
provided by the Global Research Network Operations Center (GRNOC) at Indiana 
University, a premier provider of highly responsive network coordination, 
engineering, monitoring and installation services that support the 
advancement of Research and Education networking. The GRNOC supports the 
Internet2 and National Lambda Rail research networks as well as many regional 
optical networks and international connections. Also supporting I-Light is 
the I-Light network support team, part of University Information Technology 
Services (UITS) at Indiana University.

Media contact:
Christine Fitzpatrick
IU OVPIT

 
317-278-1818

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