Aureon targets AI opportunities with multi-carrier 100 Tbps route
Key Highlights
- Aureon's new 100 Tbps fiber route connects Ellendale, North Dakota, to Chicago, supporting AI and cloud deployment growth.
- The network is engineered for scalability, with plans to reach 400 Tbps to accommodate future data demands.
- Multi-carrier collaboration involved coordination among Aureon, t3 Broadband, Nokia, and Midco, highlighting complex deployment efforts.
- Midwest is emerging as a significant data center hub due to available land, power, and strategic geographic positioning.
- The project positions the Midwest to add over 5 gigawatts of new data center capacity in the coming years.
Aureon has launched a 100 Tbps long-haul transport route engineered to support the rapid growth of large-scale AI and cloud deployments.
Built with partners t3 Broadband, Nokia, and Midco, the route links Ellendale, North Dakota, to Chicago via a diverse, low-latency fiber corridor across the Midwest, bolstering the region’s role as a critical on-ramp to major data center hubs.
Set to reach 100 Tbps by July, the new route is expected to scale to 400 Tbps to support future AI-driven growth, with Aureon managing ongoing support and maintenance.
Providing a connection to Chicago will be a key attraction for this route. As an established connectivity network hub, Chicago boasts an array of fiber connectivity and interconnection onramps and offramps for existing and new data center facilities.
Multi-carrier coordination
The partnership of Aureon, i3, and Midco illustrates that each provider brings their own unique expertise and network assets to the table.
However, setting up and running this network deployment was not easy.
George O'Neal, President and CEO at Aureon, said the “deployment required a high level of coordination across networks, vendors, and timelines.”
Aureon, created as a partnership among multiple rural service providers in the Midwest to provide long-haul connectivity, traces its roots to Iowa Switch Company. Through its own capital and various acquisitions, Aureon has over 60,000 miles of owned and partner fiber, direct data center access in key Iowa and regional markets.
Similarly, Midco and t3 have also built sizeable networks coupled with experience serving data centers.
As a cable operator with sizeable fiber assets across Kansas, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, Midco has been ramping up its 400G wavelength services for wholesale customers. For this agreement with a lit fiber network solution.
Midco’s Vice President of Business Sales, Justin Hebda, said that “working with Aureon to deploy a solution leveraging Midco’s fiber network, combined with the depth and reach of our network, allowed us to deliver high-capacity transport quickly and reliably.”
Along with its suite of fixed wireless, 5G wireless services and microwave transport, t3 provides optical transport solutions covering the edge, aggregation/middle mile networks, and long-haul transport networks.
Chris Crowe, CEO of t3 Broadband, which brought its engineering expertise and network assets to the table, agreed.
“Coordinating across multiple carriers and aligning network architecture at this scale requires a high degree of technical precision,” he said.
A growing hub
Aureon’s timing for this new fiber network project comes as the Midwest is fast becoming a major destination for data centers.
While large-scale data center infrastructure development was concentrated in Northern Virginia, Dallas, Phoenix, and Silicon Valley, the Midwest has traditionally played a small role in the data center ecosystem.
But these markets have become saturated, and data center providers are struggling to access the necessary power and land.
Midwest markets could add more than 5 gigawatts of new capacity in the coming years.
Hyperscale data center operators have begun to target other markets, such as the Midwest, that have the necessary land, power infrastructure, and geographic positioning to support new facilities.
According to a recent Datacenters.com post, projections suggest that “Midwest markets could add more than 5 gigawatts of new capacity in the coming years.”
However, 5 gigawatts of new capacity appear to be only the beginning. As AI and cloud infrastructure continue to grow, the Midwest will see hyperscalers expand services further.
All of this creates a perfect storm for carriers like Aureon’s and its new partner network, which will provide fiber connectivity and interconnection points to the desirable Chicago market.
Datacenters.com noted that as “additional data centers are built in surrounding areas, the region’s network ecosystem will continue to expand” with new connectivity options.
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About the Author
Sean Buckley
Sean is responsible for establishing and executing the editorial strategy of Lightwave across its website, email newsletters, events, and other information products.