Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly

Ivy Tech Community College's campus in Fort Wayne is among 21 campuses across the state that will be connected to the I-Light fiber-optic network after it received a $25.1-million grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

I-Light is a high-performance fiber-optic network primarily used for research and education. It is managed by the Global Research Network Operations Center at Indiana University.

I-Light is partnering with Zayo Bandwidth, a provider of fiber-optic services, to expand the network to Ivy Tech's campuses, according to a statement released Thursday. In addition to Ivy Tech-Northeast in Fort Wayne, I-Light will be extended to campuses in: Anderson, Bloomington (two locations), Columbus, Connersville, East Chicago, Elkhart, Evansville, Fairbanks, Fort Wayne, Gary, Kokomo, Lafayette, Lawrenceburg, Madison, Marion, Michigan City, Monticello, Muncie, Valparaiso and Warsaw.

"This investment of stimulus money for broadband is especially timely for the growing needs of Ivy Tech," Ivy Tech President Thomas Snyder said in the statement. "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."

As it connects Ivy Tech campuses to I-Light, Zayo Bandwidth also will extend broadband connectivity to as many as 80 unserved or underserved communities throughout the state. In all, the company will lay 626 miles of new 96-strand fiber, and the project is expected to be completed in three years. Presently, the I-Light network has a total of about 1,200 miles of fiber lines.

In all, the project will cost $31.8 million. Zayo Bandwidth — a subsidiary of Zayo Group — Ivy Tech, Indiana University, Ball State University and Purdue University are contributing funding to the project.

Zayo Bandwidth owns and operates fiber-optic networks in 141 markets in 23 states.

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