Case Study: Northwest Colorado Council of Governments achieves resilient rural broadband with Ciena

Northwest Colorado Council of Governments - Customer Case Study

Northwest Colorado Council of Governments (NWCCOG) needed a way to bring high-quality, resilient broadband to rural communities spread across northwest Colorado’s rugged terrain, where mountains, weather, and fiber cuts made connectivity unreliable and costly to repair. Working with Ciena, the organization set out to solve the lack of dependable broadband with a middle-mile network that could better serve local governments, schools, healthcare, public safety, and residents.

Ciena helped NWCCOG build Project THOR, a carrier-grade, open-access fiber network using Packet Optical platforms, Waveserver Ai, the 5170 Platform, and MCP software for monitoring and automated traffic rerouting. The solution delivered over 400 miles of open-access fiber across 10 counties, improved resiliency, lowered broadband costs, and enabled competitive ISP access. The project now serves almost a quarter of Colorado by area and 23% of the rural population, while also supporting critical uses like rapid medical imaging transmission in about five minutes.

Northwest Colorado Council of Governments

Paul Schultz

Former IT Director