Ohio Governor lights ultra fast network

During a media event this afternoon, Ohio Governor Kasich lit the state’s ultra high-speed 100gbps broadband network. The idea for the network was first announced during the Governor’s 2012 State of the State address. CivSource has followed the development of the network which is on pace to make the state a hub for health care and health IT innovation, and is also modernizing critical infrastructure and first responder networks.

Ohio has invested approximately $13 million to harness innovative technology that will, in essence, “open the faucet” of Ohio’s current broadband infrastructure from its current 10 Gbps capacity to 100 Gbps. This expansion leverages the 1,850-plus miles of fiber optic network operated by OARnet, a member of the Ohio Board of Regents Ohio Technology Consortium and a multidisciplinary research center under Ohio State’s Office of Research.

The 100 Gbps network connects Ohio’s major metropolitan areas to northern and southern connection points of Internet2, a nationwide advanced networking consortium led by the research and education community, spanning leading U.S. and international institutions in the worlds of research, academia, industry and government.

Ohio leads the nation in the amount of fiber laid per person in a state. At this new speed, smartphone data will be 50,000 times faster and the state’s hospitals will be able to send 8.5 million medical records per second. This ultra high-speed access will also be able available to K-12 students in addition to college campuses and other anchor institutions. No federal funds were involved in the initiative, the network is the sole work of state officials and private sector partners.

Private sector businesses looking to connect to the network can do so through subscriptions or by working with the state’s JobsOhio program. The state also hopes that the network will be an incubator for public private partnerships aimed at commercializing the next generation Internet applications and hardware.