Broadband

Elkhart County Broadband Initiative

Elkhart County officials last fall contracted with Gram Tel and their partner company, Trans Tech, to construct a fiber net-work backbone connecting each of the county's main 18 offices. This connection, estimated at a cost of approximately $1.5 million, would result in drastically increased high speed connectivity between offices with an obvious cost benefit. However, Carlton added that it is his company's plan to not only complete phase one of the project, which will install the dark fiber backbone connect downtown Goshen with downtown Elkhart, but expand on it dramatically to include all of the Elkhart County business community via additional phases. The dark fiber will not have a specific vendor connected with its use.

Phase 1 of the Initiative will connect all 18 government buildings (shown on the maps with red) and Phase 2 & 3 (shown on the maps with blue) will provide our existing and future businesses an opportunity to tie into the system.  Timing and routes of Phase 2 & 3 is driven by client need.
 


County Routes
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Elkhart City Routes
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Goshen City Routes
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Metro Net
 

 

The term Metro Net is derived from a Metropolitan Area Network.

A metropolitan area network (MAN) is a network that interconnects users with computer resources in a geographic area or region via high-speed optical fiber that is designed to carry voice, video, and data transmissions

Organizations benefit from sharing the cost of infrastructure while gaining the advantages of having a private high speed network

This network will be a “dark” fiber network meaning that it will be vendor neutral and can be “lit” or utilized by any carrier who desires to do so for internet bandwidth, or utilized without a carrier for internal network traffic

 

Who Benefits?
 

 

Elkhart County Government
Addresses their connectivity and infrastructure needs presenting opportunities for ongoing cost savings and efficiency gains

Elkhart County Taxpayers
Contract with GramTel allows the County to complete the project at less cost than it would have on their own due to the GramTel investment

Elkhart County Businesses
Access to high speed fiber connectivity at a less expensive rate than currently available

GramTel
Opportunity to build a data center in Elkhart County to offer our services directly in this marketplace

Elkhart County as a whole
Economic development with this network available and marketed as a community asset that benefits all of us.

 


The following companies have invested in the Economic Development Corporation of Elkhart County. We ask that you return the favor by supporting them.  Click on their "Investor Plaque" to visit their website.
 


 

 


GramTel