Using a combination of new and existing fiber lines, NIUNet is a 175-mile fiber optic ring enhancing both the university’s own research mission and economic development efforts around the state.
When work to build NIUNet began in 2004, the goal was simple: create a high-speed fiber optic network that linked the main campus in DeKalb with Outreach Centers in Rockford, Naperville and Hoffman Estates.
Almost immediately, however, NIU realized that it could be something much more significant. Soon, the goal became much more ambitious: delivering the latest high-speed communication technology, not just to NIU facilities but to the entire region – at an affordable price.
Four years later, the first goal is about to be realized, and the second is being accomplished on a daily basis as NIU recruits municipalities, schools, hospitals and research institutions to partner with the university on the project.
Each new partnership has brought the network one step closer to completion while extending the latest in high-speed digital communications to communities throughout the university’s service region. As it grows, NIUNet is enhancing education, government, medicine and economic development throughout northern Illinois.
As the partnerships have grown in number, NIUNet has acquired a reputation not just for its cutting edge technology but for the cooperative efforts that have allowed the network to grow by leaps and bounds through creative and innovative cost-sharing arrangements that have extended the technology without over-burdening the university or any of its partners.
In fact, the university’s skill in crafting those partnerships was one of the reasons that NIU was selected to spearhead the creation of the Illinois Rural HealthNet. The university contributed the resources, staff and time to write the grant that fund creation of the state-wide fiber-optic network that will link hospitals in sparsely populated, medically underserved corners of the state with world-class health care providers in Chicago and around the globe.