Midwest Network Cooperative
Broadband Purchasing Cooperative
The Midwest region has historically enjoyed an above average concentration of long haul dark fiber. These high speed information links connect the east to the west through major switching centers in cities such as Chicago and South Bend. Over the last decade a number of dark fiber systems have also surfaced connecting end users to this broadband superhighway.
It is a strategic advantage to those organizations with the monetary and intellectual capacity to utilize them. Until recently, this was left for these large users whom posses deep pockets and seasoned IT staffing to make dark fiber and high speed wireless work.
In 2009, Com-Control created a new cooperative model to allow small and medium sized organizations the same benefits of using dark fiber that the large companies enjoyed. The Midwest Network Cooperative engages high speed broadband assets in a shared cost model to deliver true anytime, anywhere, any speed and for any duration type connectivity. A virtual network exchange creating the essential cloud fabric once only afforded to large enterprise grade business users. This is done in a completely vendor neutral manner. Subscribing members are charged a 5% to 10% management fee based on broadband assets used. This has been a great way for savvy IT departments to purchase large blocks of ethernet transport and tier 1 commodity IP withouth the hassle of a large implementation or contract.
The MNC provides a marketplace where every subscribing member has the ability to remove the broadband connectivity barrier from their quest to compete in the new global, digital marketplace. It does this by assembling key contributed broadband assets from existing owners of dark fiber, switching hardware and basic data center components, while compensating the asset owners for use of what in many instances is "spare capacity".
The cooperative uses the same resources available in the open marketplace, the difference is that you share the purchasing power of the entire cooperative. This can mean up to 80% off stand alone rates and membership platform that has seen its subscribing members enjoy over 25% year over year reduction in their already low costs, since inception.
