Quantum Corridor hits milestone with northwest Indiana fiber network
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA public-private partnership in northwest Indiana is taking a big leap forward that could have major implications for the region and beyond.
Quantum Corridor Inc., a group of high-tech companies that joined to drive tech infrastructure in Indiana, has completed testing of what it calls the most secure fiber optic network in the Western Hemisphere with connectivity speeds more than 1,000 times faster than traditional fiber networks.
The transmission took place late last month between the Digital Crossroads data center in Hammond and the Chicago ORD 10 Data Center, and CEO Tom Dakich says it reached speeds 500 times faster than the blink of an eye.
In an interview on Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick, Dakich said the effort is the start of a vision to connect businesses and academic institutions via fiber buried beneath the Indiana Toll Road.
“We are attempting to make it such that it’s easy for the smartest scientists in the world to communicate with each other in a fast, secure way,” Dakich said. “Essentially, Indiana is really making a big pitch for life sciences. Purdue University really wants to be a national leader in these sorts of things. We’re going to help them.”
With the help of tech partners Ciena, Juniper and Converge One, and with a $4 million grant from the state’s Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative, the group says it has created previously impossible connectivity opportunities for corporate, defense and instructional platforms across the Indiana and the entire country.
The 12-mile network is the first in North American to transmit 40 terabits per second. Quantum Corridor said that is the equivalent of sending 1 million photo files or 1,500 hours of HD video every second.
“This technology opens West Lafayette, Indianapolis, Bloomington and all Indiana-based military installations to the fiber backbone in Chicago with complete security,” Quantum Corridor Chief Technology Officer Ryan Lafler said in written remarks. “The nearly instantaneous computing and communications capabilities will position Indiana and the Chicago region as one of the most quantum-capable regions in the world and will draw additional research funding.”
But the group is not stopping here. Dakich said they have 263 miles of new and existing fiber running underneath the entire Indiana Toll Road, which can be used to connect data centers, quantum research facilities and others with lightning-fast speeds.
“There are applications we can’t even fathom yet in quantum research and development, life sciences, quantum computing, quantum networking and quantum commercialization,” Dakich said. “We are already fielding questions from space exploration ventures, AI entrepreneurs and e-commerce hyperscalers who are eager to use our network to support their work.”
Dakich said the effort could be a magnet for investment and jobs in northwest Indiana.
“Quantum computing doesn’t exist today, but the research is going on vigorously,” he said. “Taking that research that is today sitting on the shelf and making it such that scientists can have a place where they can communicate instantaneously with other scientists, I think is going to make Indiana desirable; it’s going to bring a whole bunch of scientists to Indiana.”
He said his hope is to find a way to broaden the network to other parts of Indiana, including South Bend, West Lafayette, Bloomington and military installations such as Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division.
