Ziply Fiber has announced that its Northern Link Route — a 2,100-mile, 400 Gig, low-latency long-haul transport path linking Hillsboro, Portland, Seattle, Spokane, Missoula, Billings, Bismarck, Fargo, Minneapolis, Madison, and Chicago, along with dozens of other major cities — is now fully live and ready for service, including full connectivity to and from Chicago.
After a staged Western‑portion launch in October 2024, the route is now operational along its entire length. Ziply says the route delivers the shortest practical path between the Midwest and the Pacific Northwest, with ultra-high capacity to support financial services, hyperscalers, data centers and other traffic‑dense workloads.
The Northern Link Route offers a 400 Gig wavelength (four times the capacity of many existing connections) and a measured round-trip latency of 39.5 milliseconds between Seattle and Chicago (BER testing). It also provides 100 Gig wavelengths, plus 10 and 100 Gig transit services, with Northwest reach to Seattle, Vancouver, Portland and Hillsboro.
Ziply also provides colocation services at more than 200 secure facilities across Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. These sites allow businesses to house critical infrastructure close to the Northern Link Route, reducing capital expenditure while benefiting from redundant access, enhanced security and power diversity.
“When high-speed traders have millions of dollars on the line, milliseconds matter,” said Chris Gellos, Ziply Fiber’s commercial general manager. “We’re serving a wide range of industries that demand ultra-low latency and the shortest Midwest-to-Pacific Northwest path—and that’s what the Northern Link Route delivers.”
Ziply Fiber, an independent unit of Bell Canada (BCE Inc.), was founded in 2020 and is headquartered in Kirkland, Washington. The company emphasizes a local-market mindset and Northwest roots as it continues to invest in its fiber network and data-center reach along the Northern Link Route.
