FirstLight Fiber, a facilities-based telecommunications service provider, recently announced the company will provide Internet service to ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center, an award-winning LEED-certified facility in Burlington, VT.

FirstLight’s Internet transit is backed by a combination of Tier 1 provider connections and numerous private peering connections, which reduces hop counts and improves the overall user experience.  To ensure high uptime, FirstLight’s IP network employs redundant equipment, connections, and power supplies.

The unique architecture is deployed regionally in a ring format, which improves the resiliency of the network and will route Internet traffic redundantly over the fiber network—creating two different meshed core networks. The architecture will not allow for even a single point of failure within these core networks. Further, the multiple peering points within the Internet transit path will route the traffic over the best available direct path, thus ensuring high performance and continuous access.

"The fact that FirstLight's fiber network was already connected to us, and that the company has a solid reputation of excellent service made this an easy decision to select them as our technology partner," commented Travis Cook, Information Technology Coordinator for ECHO. "With FirstLight, we have more bandwidth, better service and superior reliability -- all for a cost that fits within our budget. Here at ECHO, we require the best for our guests, and rely on our Internet connection for many reasons including enabling our facilities and animal care staff to monitor the health and safety of our animals, and hosting a number of websites internally that interact with our rotating exhibits."

In related news, FirstLight Fiber recently partnered with Maine Fiber Company. As per the terms of the agreement, customers located along Maine Fiber Company's existing fiber infrastructure will now be able to access next generation IP services from FirstLight Fiber.