Ziply Announces Fiber-Rich 400 Gig ‘Northern Link Route’

WASHINGTON, Oct. 21, 2024 - A regional Internet Service Provider has announced a new ultra-high-speed fiber route connecting several cities in the American northwest to Minneapolis and Chicago. 

The “Northern Link Route” was constructed by the Kirkland, Wash., based Ziply Fiber and will provide commercial customers with 400 Gigabit service from the Pacific coast in the West to Chicago in the East. The company touted its new route as a low-latency, high-capacity long-haul transport route connecting Hillsboro, Portland, Seattle, Spokane, Missoula, Billings, Minneapolis, Chicago and dozens of other major cities in between.

The company asserted that the route will provide customers with the lowest-latency connection route to the midwest. It also noted that the route will not be as susceptible to natural disasters, given its subterranean location.

“While typical West-East routes offer 10 or perhaps 100 Gig transport, Ziply Fiber’s new route will provide 400 Gig wavelength service, four times the capacity offered by most connections today,” said Chris Gellos, vice president and general manager of commercial for Ziply Fiber.

Ziply plans to take advantage of coherent optics technology from Ciena to enable its Great Northern Express Route. Ciena is a global leader in networking systems, services and software.

According to Ziply, the Western half of the route is ready for service, with full service to and from Chicago expected to launch by the end of the year.

As of 2023, Ziply served more than 350,000 internet service subscribers throughout the American northwest.