WOW! Wholesale, iFiber Networks jointly deliver 1 Gbps to Gilberts Village, Ill.

WOW! Wholesale and iFiber Networks are jointly building a new fiber network that will give local government, business and residential customers in Village of Gilberts, Ill., a 1 Gbps Internet connection, a move that illustrates the demand for fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) services in Tier 2 communities.

Consisting of a population of about 10,000 residents, the Village of Gilberts is located about nine miles northwest of Elgin and 45 miles from Chicago.

For this project, WOW! Wholesale is building what it says is a redundant and upgradeable, five-mile fiber-optic network segment that will connect to a high speed hub location in Gilberts. Having completed the first section of the fiber backbone, the service provider said the additional segments are set to be finished this summer.

When the fiber backbone becomes operational, iFiber Networks plans to connect its Gilberts 1G fiber network, which is currently under construction, to the Internet via the WOW! Wholesale fiber backbone.

At first, iFiber Networks said it expects to purchase up to a 10 Gbps Ethernet connection from WOW! Wholesale with the ability to upgrade demand dictates. Gilberts is not an area WOW! provides services to businesses and residences today.

Troy Mertz, president of iFiber Networks, said in a release that the partnership with WOW! will enable it to provide Internet access to the Conservancy, a new 985-home residential development, as well as schools, police and fire stations, municipal buildings, businesses and other residential areas.

Besides the higher speeds, another benefit of the iFiber Networks' network is that it will be interconnected to the Internet in Chicago's 350 E. Cermak carrier hotel. WOW!'s Network Operating Center (NOC) will also monitor and support the Gilberts 1 Gbps fiber network with the power of a Tier I Internet service provider agreement secured by iFiber Networks.

For more:
- see the release

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