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IRIS NETWORKS, a middle-mile broadband provider with 25 years of experience serving underserved communities in the Southeast, completed a new 311-mile fiber route. The first build-out phase in IRIS’s next-generation network using Cienna’s 6500 hardware enables up to 400G to keep pace with business challenges and stay ahead of customer demands.
The Nashville to Atlanta route, completed in late December 2023, expands connectivity and reinforces IRIS’s vision and innovation as a middle-mile fiber provider. The route supports, catalyzes, and facilitates future last-mile projects and encourages private-sector broadband investment. The totality of the IRIS network also continues to enhance connectivity options in underserved areas.
“At IRIS, it’s our mission to improve our communities by providing worry-free technology,” said Chris Clark, CEO of IRIS Networks, “For over two decades, we’ve strived to provide the best communication services to our customers and increasing our fiber-optic footprint was an obvious decision. This route equips broadband expansion and allows IRIS to serve the rural communities by bringing them upstream connectivity, thus providing IRIS with the best way to continue to serve our customers. Many businesses will benefit from this new route and the reliability of high-speed fiber.”
The network investment not only brings connectivity to nearby communities but also provides opportunities for even more partnerships in the future. “Providing the best possible network requires multiple, diverse routes between population centers, and this is just the start of our growth,” said Chris Harris, VP of Engineering and Operations. “With 25 years of experience building fiber along traditional and lesser-used routes to create diversity, this route is a solid investment in the future of our network. The Cienna 6500 implementation is state-of-the-art technology that allows us to maximize network efficiencies and respond to customer requirements.”
About IRIS NETWORKS
IRIS NETWORKS was formed in 1998 by eleven independent rural telephone cooperatives. Their purpose was to connect rural communities and the outside world cost-effectively. Today, IRIS serves broadband to underserved communities in even the hardest-to-reach rural areas of Tennessee, North Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, and Virginia. With a world-class voice, video, and data network, IRIS’s team, with the support of its members and partners, provides high-quality, robust, and resilient services at a fair price.
About iRis Networks
We deliver the fiber-based, next-generation network and infrastructure businesses need. We’re bringing ultra-high-speed voice, data and Internet solutions to over 250 communities, reaching across Tennessee and parts of Alabama, Georgia and Kentucky.
