FiberCo Facilitates Advanced Optical Network
October 26, 2004 From Wire Services
FiberCo, a fiber holding company supporting U.S. research and higher education, today announced that
Florida LambdaRail LLC (FLR), a consortium of nine public and private Florida
universities has purchased the rights to 1,540 route miles of dark fiber and
colocation services from FiberCo, under an agreement with Level 3
Communications, Inc. (. Utilizing FiberCo's national-scale
wholesale pricing structure and streamlined fiber acquisition process, FLR
acquired the dark fiber at a significantly discounted rate and will use the
network facilities to create an advanced optical network that connects
campuses and institutions across the state.
The network, Florida LambdaRail, once complete, will enable collaboration,
advanced communication, and research among these universities in ways not
possible using existing networks by providing enhanced network performance and
bandwidth capabilities. The new FLR network will also enable consortium
members to have direct connectivity to a wide range of domestic and
international research networks, including Internet2's Abilene Network and
National LambdaRail, of which the FLR will be a regional connecting network.
The FLR consortium is made up of nine major Florida universities,
including Florida Atlantic University (FAU), Florida Institute of Technology
(FIT), Florida International University (FIU), Florida State University (FSU),
Nova Southeastern University (NSU), University of Central Florida (UCF),
University of Florida (UF), University of Miami (UM), and University of West
Florida (UWF). These top universities recognize the benefits of advanced
networking and its ability to facilitate new and innovative research and
instruction across a broad range of studies and disciplines.
"High-speed optical networking is a critical tool for achieving
sophisticated learning, research, and collaboration as well as a key
differentiator for recruiting and retaining talented researchers, faculty,
students, and education professionals to the state of Florida," said Larry
Conrad chairman, FLR, LLC and Florida State University CIO. "The dark fiber
and collocation services acquired through FiberCo serve as a foundation for
the FLR, enabling us to build a regional backbone network for the future. The
network promises to provide our researchers, students and faculty a test-bed
for innovation and we are excited for the possibilities that this network may
help them to achieve. It will essentially eliminate the issue of 'place' for
collaboration with our colleagues across the country and indeed around the
world."
Established last year by Internet2(R), a consortium led by 207
universities working with government and industry to develop and deploy
advanced networking technologies, FiberCo provides a means for acquiring,
holding, and assigning dark fiber assets on both the national and the regional
scales and on behalf of the higher education community.
"FiberCo's goal is to assist the Internet2 membership in acquiring
critical optical networking assets to facilitate the development of advanced
regional fiber infrastructure. This fiber assignment represents a key step
towards FLR's plans to deploy leading-edge optical capabilities throughout
Florida and is our largest placement of fiber with a regional network to
date," said Steve Corbato, director of network initiatives for Internet2.
"This highly collaborative effort by private and public Florida research
universities highlights the leadership of these institutions in providing
advanced Internet technology to their constituents and serves as a model for
other institutions around the country."
Under the agreement with Level 3 Communications, FiberCo has the ability
to provision both from an initial allocation of more than 2,600 route miles
and from future acquisitions of dark fiber on Level 3's national footprint.
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