Comcast Business announced the expansion of its network in Belvidere, IL, with the addition of more than three miles of new fiber along US Route 20 in the industrial area at Morreim Drive and Town Hall Road.
With the expansion complete, Comcast can provide businesses in the designated area access to Internet speeds of up to 100 Gbps, along with a wide range of commercial services, including Ethernet, Internet, Advanced Voice and cloud services. In addition, with the network in place, Comcast Business can get new commercial customers online quickly.
“Advanced technology and services will allow our businesses to compete in the region and nationally,” said Belvidere Mayor Clinton Morris. “This investment in our industrial sector – and Comcast’s significant historic investments in its network locally – illustrates the strength of our industrial base and economy.”
“Top-tier connectivity and technology are crucial to Belvidere’s economic development and advancement,” said Pamela Lopez-Fettes, Executive Director of Growth Dimensions, the Economic Development entity for Belvidere and Boone County, Illinois. “Comcast is an important economic development partner, in addition to being a service provider.”
“The addition of fiber provides increased bandwidth, allowing businesses to do more, from accessing more applications and services in the cloud and exchanging large amounts of data, to managing employees in the field and servicing customers online,” said Sean McCarthy, Comcast Regional Vice President of Business Development and Strategic Initiatives. “Comcast already has an extensive network in the region, and we’ve been expanding it significantly through strategic proactive investments designed to help spur economic growth in emerging and growing business corridors. We’re proud to partner with Belvidere to provide the critical infrastructure necessary to support the area’s economy.”
Additional advanced Comcast Business services available to businesses as a result of the network expansion include:
- ActiveCore SDN, a software-defined networking (SDN) platform providing businesses intelligent, centralized control for their networks via software applications like Managed Router and SD-WAN.
- Cybersecurity Services, reducing vulnerability to denial of service (DDoS) attacks and helping protect business infrastructure with managed security solutions; and
- Comcast Business VoiceEdge, a fully managed, scalable cloud-based voice system providing unified communications (UC) tools that can improve communication, enhance collaboration and help businesses increase productivity.
Comcast has spent nearly $30 billion in the last decade building an expansive fiber-dense network totaling 191,000 miles across the company’s service footprint. Comcast has invested $1.4 billion in technology and infrastructure in Illinois alone in the last three years. These investments have allowed Comcast to offer an array of state-of-the-art telecommunications services, including an Internet service with download speeds up to 1.2 Gbps to all homes and businesses its network passes locally in Belvidere and northern Illinois and nationally.
In addition, the extent of Comcast’s network has made it possible for the company to offer the largest WiFi network locally and in the nation. Xfinity WiFi includes more than 20 million WiFi hotspots in locations across the country and more than 1.9 million in the region. Comcast has placed hotspots in or adjacent to locations ranging from restaurants, retail stores, salons and doctors’ offices to parks and universities, according to McCarthy.
