Spread Networks is a company founded by Dan Spivey and backed by James L. Barksdale (former CEO of Netscape ) that claims to offer Internet connectivity between Chicago and New York City at ultra-low latency (i.e. speeds that are very close to the speed of light), high bandwidth, and high reliability, using dark fiber.
[3][5][6] According to a Forbes article, the idea for the line first came to Dan Spivey in 2007: Spivey contracted with a New York hedge fund to devise a low-latency arbitrage strategy, wherein the fund would search out tiny discrepancies between futures contracts in Chicago and their underlying equities in New York.
[5] He spent some time researching the feasibility of building an ultra-low-latency line, and then looked for people willing to fund it and found Jim Barksdale.
[10] In January 2014, Spread Networks announced that it had opened a point of presence at the NYSE Euronext trading center located in Mahwah, New Jersey.
[16] According to a Wired article, the estimated roundtrip time for an ordinary cable is 14.5 milliseconds, giving users of Spread Networks a slight advantage.