The Baltimore County Optical Network (BCON) spans more than 200 miles and connects more than half of all County public schools, our entire police department and every public library, as well as a number of County and state agency sites. We've also established interconnect points with Harford, Carroll and Howard counties, and Baltimore City.
WHO'S USING BCON
Since 2012, Baltimore County and the State of Maryland have trusted this network to handle critical services for the Baltimore County Police Department, the Maryland Emergency Management Agency and the Maryland State Police. Current BCON customers include:
- Baltimore County Government
- Community College of Baltimore County
- Baltimore County Public Schools
- Ting Networks (a subsidiary of Tucows)
- The Maryland Research and Education Network
- Maryland State Department of Technology
- Baltimore City Mayor's Office of Information Technology
- Johns Hopkins Health Care and Surgery Center Development, LLC
- Skywire Holdings, LLC dba GiGstreem
- FiberLight, LLC
ALWAYS EXPANDING
Baltimore County is committed to the continued expansion of the BCON network. Our goals for the future include extending fiber to every County Public School within the next five years, continuing to develop new partnerships and interconnect points with the private sector, and extending into known development zones so that as many services as possible are available to everyone connected to the network.
BECOME A BCON CUSTOMER
BCON is a robust, redundant, regional fiber network. We are able to provide access to dark fiber resources throughout the County and can provide connectivity to Baltimore City, Howard County, Carroll County and Harford County. We can also assist our customers with communicating to these other counties to extend the reach of the network into nearly all parts of Maryland. There are no other dark fiber providers in the region that can match our reach or our pricing.
We are leasing dark fiber to the private sector and locations where it is not currently commercially available at extremely competitive rates, with the intent to encourage economic development in and around the County. Our high-capacity, high-availability network is a vital resource to the County.
To inquire about dark fiber availability, email BCON@baltimorecountymd.gov.
BENEFITS OF BCON
As a BCON customer, you will be able to take advantage of the following:
- Access to 24-7-365 Network Operation Center
- Carrier grade network, powered by Ciena
- Access to Tier One service providers
- Ever-expanding footprint
- Extremely competitive pricing
- Optional redundant fiber routing within our ring topology
- Optional "build to suit" for your business needs
ABOUT BUILD TO SUIT
Baltimore County is committed to helping our customers improve their business operations as well as easing the cost burden of making critical upgrades. To that end, we are open to absorbing the cost of some additional fiber infrastructure construction to extend our facilities closer to, or into, your facilities. This would depend on your willingness to commit to a pre-determined minimum term on the lease agreement, which would allow us to recover our costs.
REFERENCE DOCUMENTS
Download and complete the Dark Fiber License Agreement.