New Albany features one of the most robust and affordable fiber optic networks in the country. New Albany Net is the community-owned, high-speed fiber optic network developed in partnership with the city, Bluemile and American Electric Power when the company built its electricity transmissions control center in New Albany Business Park’s Information and Technology Cluster. The result is a secure 96-strand, dark fiber optic network that provides access to more than 200 carriers and has reduced network service costs from ten to 70 percent.

According to Michael Marlowe, president and cofounder of Bluemile, the network benefits go well beyond cost savings that can be translated into dollars and cents. “The question really comes down to whether your telecom infrastructure is a benefit or a cost,” Marlowe explains. “With New Albany Net, greater bandwidth and custom redundancy can dramatically affect productivity and that is part of the equation for businesses today.”

New Albany Net connects to more than ten points of presence throughout Central Ohio, the state of Ohio, the Mid Atlantic and the East Coast, including Cleveland, Charlotte, New York and Philadelphia. Points of presence, commonly referred to as POPs, are data center facilities that have multiple telecom carriers that connect and exchange data with one another.

Through this added connectivity, a business in New Albany can connect to its branch locations throughout North America or from an old facility to its new facility in New Albany. An educational institution can connect to a college in France for an adaptive learning course or a local hospital can connect to physician practices or medical schools throughout the world to provide medical education, a specialized lecture or video of a new surgical procedure.