The internet has become a necessity in our everyday lives, from helping individuals to supporting the fastest growing businesses. Fiber optic has been named the electricity of the 21st century and this fundamental component has just hit The City of East Chicago. City officials announced their partnership with Nitco Thursday afternoon with an official ribbon cutting to represent the startup.
For the last 80 years, Nitco, a the family owned company, has been providing cities with high quality fiber network. The East Chicago city officials and Nitco representatives gathered to proudly announce the most recent partnership with the city, which soon will spread to the cities of Chesterton and Valparaiso.
“You can see that this project is going to shine for generations,” East Chicago Mayor Anthony Copeland said.
The city of East Chicago invested approximately $1.5 million for the project and is looking forward to the changes and opportunities that it will create for the city.
“It has allowed us to put cameras around the city for safety and give citizens access to faster internet. We are able to reduce overall cost to telecommunications,” Copeland said.
The city has worked on the project for 2 1/2 years, first building the fiber network to interconnect its municipal network. The project expanded economic development with the support of Nitco.
“The city had the vision to be able to move forward and think here is an opportunity to do a lot of good for the citizens of the city of East Chicago.” said Tom Carroll, Senior Vice President of Nitco.
The expansion of fiber optic service to the East Chicago area will provide local businesses a fast, reliable fiber optic network and will encourage out-of-town businesses to consider.
Tom Long, President and Chief Operation Officer, said Nitco is happy to have the city of East Chicago joining their family.
“We see this as a long term partnership, working together with the businesses and the residences of East Chicago. That is Nitco's commitment.” Long said.
For more information about Nitco, visit https://www.nitco.com/.
