Blogs

A Vision for the Future: Innovating Across the Midwest

• Posted: 7.10.2023
• Topics: Internet, Networking

Read time: 4 min.

By Tom McAdaragh, Midco President, and Pao Lo, Midco Vice President of Network Engineering

The next chapter of Midco is here. With nearly 100 years under our belt, a lot has changed, but our commitment to bringing the best products and services to customers hasn’t. By investing in our fiber network, we can adapt to changing technology and support the needs of businesses for the now and the next. 

A Vision for the Future (Video Transcript) 

McAdaragh: Midco today is a fiber optic company. It has 13,000 miles of fiber and is an internet service provider. 

Lo: What excites me about Midco is our level of innovation that's occurring to ensure that we're delivering products and services to our customers whether it be residential or business customers. 

Midco Network Vision (0:22) 

How we achieve the Midco network vision is definitely standardization. That goes all the way to standard equipment, standard design, standard implementation – so that no matter where you are in the network it's the same and it's standard. 

Midco is unique in that Midco has a dedicated business network versus other service providers that are out there in the industry. So, the business network is a completely different network from the residential core IP network. By having a separate network from the residential network, when folks, [like] technicians and engineers, are working on the residential network, they're not impaired by those improvements and upgrades that are happening on the residential side. 

Transport Network (1:03) 

Then, you look at the transport network. We recently finished upgrading the transport network to be able to handle 12 terabits of network traffic. So, the transport network is very key in terms of connecting our cities and communities together.  

Transport Paths (1:20) 

And then, you have the network paths. That's really giving us more redundancy, more resiliency inside the network, so these are physical paths. 

One exciting initiative that we have going on is getting fiber to Chicago and Denver. That's really going to give our expanded network more resiliency, more redundancy and more access to content that's out there. 

Traffic Engineering (1:43) 

There's a thing called traffic engineering, and traffic engineering really looks at what is the most popular content? Is it sustainable? And do we need to go ahead and bring that content closer to our customers so that they can enjoy that? We're always looking for and watching out for any new applications or content that customers may want in demand from the network. 

A Bright Future (2:05) 

McAdaragh: The future of Midco is very bright – given our fiber network, our talented people and where the technology of the world is headed. Striving to be the best is what allows us to deliver the most value to our customers. It really makes work fun, it makes it rewarding, and it makes us a leader in the industry that we chose to endeavor.