$1.1M Fiber Optic Network to Give Montgomery County Internet Speed

Rockville, MD — Work of connect Montgomery County with a massive data center in Ashburn, VA, that serves the East Coast – bringing speedier internet speeds to local users – is under way, officials said.

Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett has promoted the partnership between USA Fiber and White Oak data center Bytegrid, which represents a milestone in the creation of the Ashburn Fiber Express. The project will create faster, more reliable, fiber connections for Montgomery County and Maryland data centers, businesses, and research institutions to reach major data centers in Virginia, the county said in a news release.

USA Fiber’s direct fiber route, built underneath the Potomac River, will connect Bytegrid, a data center within Montgomery County, to a 7-mile ring of more than 30 data centers in Ashburn.

Ashburn is the data center hub for all Internet traffic and “cloud services” on the East Coast. More than 90% of all East Coast Internet routes use one of the 10,000 Internet connection points in Ashburn.

“Internet connectivity and network infrastructure enable our economy to move at the speed of our ideas,” said Leggett. “Using the improved fiber connectivity provided by USA Fiber’s Ashburn Express, Bytegrid can offer the opportunity for federal agencies, research institutions, and large businesses in Montgomery County to have the convenience of installing and accessing equipment locally; the security of using a federal information security standard-compliant facility; and the ease of connectivity to other data centers.”

UltraMontgomery, as the $1.1 million project is dubbed, should give businesses speedier access and more reliable connections to the internet, reports WTOP.

Montgomery County Council members Nancy Floreen and Nancy Navarro said the plan includes “really cool stuff,” that Navarro said will give the county an edge in attracting businesses, WTOP reports.

With this new Bytegrid-USA Fiber partnership, and the opening of the USA Fiber Ashburn Express in September, the effort will make gigabit Internet connectivity better in Montgomery County than in Fairfax, the county says