145 public facilities and other local broadband service providers now connected with 244 miles of fiber
BOULDER, Colo.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Zayo Group today announced the completion of “Connect Anoka County”, a community broadband network project for Anoka County, Minn., located north of Minneapolis. Zayo now offers high speed connectivity across unserved and underserved northwest, northeast, and southeast areas of Anoka County.
In 2010, Zayo was awarded $13.4 million from the Federal Reinvestment and Recovery Act (FRRA) Broadband Opportunity Program to enable high-speed broadband services to government, businesses, schools, community institutions and local internet service providers in Minnesota. With the completion of this project, a scalable fiber infrastructure has been established to serve users throughout Anoka County.
“This unique network footprint is a valuable extension to our national fiber network” said Chris Morley, President of Ethernet at Zayo. “The network enables access to Ethernet service, Direct Internet Access, Private Line, Wavelengths and Dark Fiber for 145 local public facilities, and other local broadband users.”
“From the beginning, this project has been about improving our ability to serve our citizens and enhancing their ability to compete in a digital society,” said Jim Kordiak, Anoka County Commissioner and Connect Anoka County co-chair. “Enabling the transfer of data at the speed of light, literally, is the status quo in today’s international marketplace. In order for our business to create jobs, our children to be educated, and our residents to access services that help them thrive, digital access is an essential element.”
Fellow commissioner and project co-chair Robyn West commented on the project’s ability to improve public safety and improve local businesses’ ability to communicate: “Moving data in milliseconds means our public safety responders using computer-aided dispatching can move that much more quickly, and businesses can compete in the fastest arenas.”
Prior to the completion of Connect Anoka County, many areas in Anoka County only obtained online access via T1 or DSL service, limiting business and educational opportunities, government services and public safety responsiveness. Anoka County now has high speed access to the full Zayo network footprint across 45 states, Washington D.C., and seven countries.
This is Zayo’s second major broadband grant – in 2010, Zayo received its first federal award of $25 million to extend the fiber-based network infrastructure to 80 rural communities in 21 higher education institutions in Indiana.
About Zayo
Based in Boulder, Colo., privately owned Zayo Group (www.zayo.com) is an international provider of fiber-based Bandwidth Infrastructure services and carrier-neutral colocation and interconnection services. Zayo serves wireline and wireless carriers, data centers, Internet content and services companies, high bandwidth enterprises, and federal, state and local government agencies. Zayo provides these services over metro, national, international and fiber-to-the-tower networks. With its acquisitions of USCarrier, FiberGate and AboveNet, Zayo’s network includes 74,300 route miles, serving 45 states and Washington, D.C. Its network serves approximately 11,740 on-net buildings, including 571 data centers, 563 carrier PoPs, and 3,045 cell towers. Zayo’s colocation assets include 141,000 billable square feet of interconnect-focused colocation space.
About Anoka County
Anoka County is one of Minnesota’s fastest growing counties located in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. The administration has been recognized as a national leader in innovation and efficiency and received the state’s top grade when it comes to communicating with citizens online. More than 330-thousand people call Anoka County home because of its business-friendly economic environment and abundant educational, cultural and natural resources including three rivers and some of Minnesota’s finest lakes. Anoka County is a place where businesses prosper and people thrive.
Contacts
For Zayo Group media inquiries, please contact:
Linhart Public Relations
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