Comcast announced that the company has added more than five miles of fiber optic network spanning Chicago’s Back of the Yards and Bridgeport neighborhoods, from South Halsted Street west to South Ashland Avenue and from 31st Street south to 47th Street. This proactive infrastructure investment gives nearly 300 small- and medium-sized businesses in the area access to Internet speeds of up to 10 Gbps, along with a wide range of Comcast Business services, including Ethernet, Internet, Voice and value-added cloud services. The investment Comcast is making in Back of the Yards, Bridgeport and other locations in the City of Chicago and suburbs is in response to strong demand for its Business offerings. It also aligns with efforts many communities are making to expand their local telecommunications and information technology infrastructure. “The speed and consistency of the new Comcast service will help Ashland Cold Storage remain competitive in the Chicago market,” said Alex G. Olejniczak, executive vice president and general manager for Ashland Cold Storage. “Comcast’s proactive builds and other efforts to expand our network and increase capacity have helped us reach more and more businesses,” said Jay Dirkmaat, regional vice president of Comcast Business. “Fiber means increased bandwidth – and increased bandwidth allows businesses to access more and more applications and services in the cloud, accommodate rapidly increasing numbers of employees in the field using mobile devices and exchange large amounts of data.”