BDI Chicago

About BDI Chicago

Chicago is one of the largest fiber and broadband markets in the country, and the western suburbs sit right at the center of it. AT&T runs an expanding AT&T Fiber network across the metro, Comcast Xfinity serves nearly the entire city and suburbs, and Metronet has been building fiber-to-the-home throughout Naperville and the surrounding communities since 2020. That carrier density, combined with a wave of new data center construction along the I-88 corridor, keeps steady demand for technicians who can install, splice, and test fiber. A CFOT certification is how employers screen for that skill.

The Naperville area has deep telecom roots. It anchors the Illinois Technology and Research Corridor along I-88, home to longtime telecom employers and the kind of network infrastructure work that fiber technicians support. BDI DataLynk is an FOA-Approved fiber optic certification school (#208) that delivers hands-on classes at professional training facilities across the country. Its Chicago-area classes run the FiberOptiX Bootcamp, which earns three certifications in one week: CFOT, CFOS/T (Testing), and CFOS/S (Splicing). BDI provides the instructor, curriculum, and all training equipment.

How Registration Works

Register directly through BDI DataLynk. Pick an upcoming Chicago-area date and reserve your seat online. BDI provides the instructor, curriculum, and all training equipment. View the BDI DataLynk schedule to register.

Getting Here

Classes are held in Naperville, a western Chicago suburb in DuPage County about 30 miles west of downtown Chicago. The site sits just off the I-88 East-West Tollway (the Ronald Reagan Memorial Tollway), with both O’Hare and Midway airports roughly 30 miles away. Metra’s BNSF line connects Naperville directly to Union Station downtown for students arriving by rail. For those traveling in, plenty of hotels sit nearby along the I-88 corridor and around the Naperville and Warrenville interchanges.