Kentucky Wired ARRIVES IN TIME FOR ATCDC PROJECT
ATCDC Attends “Kentucky Wired” Announcement… In the mountains on eastern Kentucky, on the Hazard Campus of Technology several dignitaries were on hand Monday, August 31st to unveil the official project to net the entire state of Kentucky with dark fiber. The project has been named the Kentucky “I-Way” and will be a $324 million dollar project laid over 3 phases to complete the middle mile network. Funding is being provided by both the state as well as through a private Australian investment firm, Macquarie Capital. ATCDC members were on hand Monday to review the expansion and determine how the fiber project would impact the development of the facility. Based on the information provided by those in attendance, the network will provide a connective grid across the entire Commonwealth.
The “I-Way” Will Run Through Our Backyard… The Kentucky “I-Way” will be routed along main highway and interstate hubs throughout the state. As for ATCDC, it is anticipated that three main node routes will come into the area where the campus is located terminating at the eastern most node within the state. It is the outlook for ATCDC that we will be able to collaborate with the commonwealth to provide bandwidth power to part of the eastern region using the switch and server farm within our facilities.
Benefits of the “I-Way”… The ATCDC campus can benefit from the I-Way in several different ways. Some benefits look to include: 3dedicated lines of redundancy 50GbPs Spine on three networks ATCDC can function as its own network carrier delivering guaranteed service. Ability to service the region with point to point access to the facility.
Supporters of ATCDC & Kentucky Wired… Members of the ATCDC project gained strong support from multiple Kentucky cabinets and regional organizations on the promise of working with the Kentucky Wired project to provide site location services to push the network and use it to access dedicated fiber signals for our clients. Interested parties include the KY State Governors office, the house of the 99th District, the SOAR initiative, the Center for Economic Development, the Kentucky Innovation Network, Morehead State University, the Committee of Matt Bivens, and the Center for Rural Development. ATCDC is proud to have such champions in their corner spurring this project along. “The initiative and collaboration is a no brainer” stated ATCDC COO, Vincenzo Fressola. Congressman Hal Rogers agreed that a supported network is essential in order to bring carriers on board to complete the statewide coverage.
Moving Forward… Members of the ATCDC project, having met with state officials, preliminary investment entities and even interested clientele, are now working towards completing the next steps of development. Interest in the project continues to grow within the region and we are working to bring the ATCDC to reality. We hope to continue to work towards our existing deadline of Phase I operation by the end of 2016.
