VTel's gigabit connection draws oohs Written by JOHN BRIGGS Free Press Staff Writer May. 02 burlingtonfreepress.com Family owned Vermont Telephone Co., with 17,500 subscribers, doesn’t play in the Google world, or Comcast’s, but its new $35 a month gigabit service, now reaching 600 subscribers, has drawn attention nationally and internationally. A gigabit in this context is the transfer of one billion bytes per second — a fast Internet connection. VTel plans to connect all of its subscribers to the gigabit service, which it calls its GigE fiber-optic-network service. The company is adding more than 200 homes a week to the GigE service, VTel says, “with the project on target to reach every location in the VTel service area by mid-2014.” A Wall Street Journal blog Friday, headlined “Look out Google Fiber ...” drew wide attention. VTel President Michel Guite said Monday that some 150 tech blogs and publications worldwide picked up the story, including some in Chinese, Hebrew, Spanish and other languages. “It tells me,” he said, “our GigE project might be what I always suspected — i.e., interesting beyond Vermont.” Dan Seitz, in a question-and-answer presentation Monday on the tech blog UPROXX, took note of the VTel effort in a tone of incredulity: “Wait, this is a joke, right?” Affirming that it’s not a joke, he explained that it happened with “your tax dollars” but might be reasonable because it is senseless to replace old copper wires with other than fiber. VTel quotes Ethernet inventor Bob Metcalfe, who praised the small company for doing what Google is doing in Kansas City and Austin, Texas, “but in rural Vermont — gigafication of the Internet. It’s a tremendous win,” Metcalfe said, “for rural America.” Gov. Peter Shumlin weighed in, as well: “VTel’s commitment to innovation and technology has enabled the company to provide high-speed internet to rural areas of Vermont. This is good news for VTel customers and for Vermont jobs, economic development and quality of life.” VTel is using a portion of $151 million it has received in federal grants to connect homes and businesses across Vermont’s rural back roads to the Internet. The small company, dating to the late 19th century, is a “lead experimenter,” Guite said, for the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utility System (a New Deal agency given the goal of rural electrification by President Roosevelt) to see if rural telephone companies can remain sustainable and relevant. “No one knows if they are survivable,” Guite said. “They’re going out of business.” Guite said that while most Internet providers divide the fiber to reach individual homes, VTel is “running fiber from the central office to the home, a billion bits per second, not shared with anyone else.” He said Google began that approach in Kansas City and Texas but is charging $70 per home. VTel’s $35 monthly charge suggests the ultra-high-speed connection might be available (in Vermont, at least) to subscribers for whom dial-up connections have been most familiar. “We hope it will work” economically, Guite said. He said the cost of stringing fiber remains about the same as a few years ago, but other technical costs have fallen. “We began to build it about a year ago and began connecting in the last month or two,” he said. “We’re plugging ahead pretty fast. We should be at 10,000 by year’s end.” He said he hopes the appeal of the speed of the connection will hold subscribers for VTel’s triple play (TV, phone and Internet). A recent VTel update to customers said the new service is being extended to all 14 telephone exchanges VTel serves. North Springfield is fully built, the update stated, with multiple crews at work in Springfield, Middletown Springs, Ira, Hartland and Wallingford. The VTel goal is to reach all the exchanges by year’s end. “We’re trying to prove that a standalone high-speed rural network, with GigE to every home, high-definition voice, unlimited voice calling, 500 channels of state-of-the-art video, and 4G LTE wireless can survive in rural America,” Guite said. “The jury is out, but we’re optimistic.”
Friday, May 3, 2013
VTel's gigabit connection draws oohs
Tech blogs, customers drawn to $35 a month, super-fast, rural Internet service.
VTel's gigabit connection draws oohs Written by JOHN BRIGGS Free Press Staff Writer May. 02 burlingtonfreepress.com Family owned Vermont Telephone Co., with 17,500 subscribers, doesn’t play in the Google world, or Comcast’s, but its new $35 a month gigabit service, now reaching 600 subscribers, has drawn attention nationally and internationally. A gigabit in this context is the transfer of one billion bytes per second — a fast Internet connection. VTel plans to connect all of its subscribers to the gigabit service, which it calls its GigE fiber-optic-network service. The company is adding more than 200 homes a week to the GigE service, VTel says, “with the project on target to reach every location in the VTel service area by mid-2014.” A Wall Street Journal blog Friday, headlined “Look out Google Fiber ...” drew wide attention. VTel President Michel Guite said Monday that some 150 tech blogs and publications worldwide picked up the story, including some in Chinese, Hebrew, Spanish and other languages. “It tells me,” he said, “our GigE project might be what I always suspected — i.e., interesting beyond Vermont.” Dan Seitz, in a question-and-answer presentation Monday on the tech blog UPROXX, took note of the VTel effort in a tone of incredulity: “Wait, this is a joke, right?” Affirming that it’s not a joke, he explained that it happened with “your tax dollars” but might be reasonable because it is senseless to replace old copper wires with other than fiber. VTel quotes Ethernet inventor Bob Metcalfe, who praised the small company for doing what Google is doing in Kansas City and Austin, Texas, “but in rural Vermont — gigafication of the Internet. It’s a tremendous win,” Metcalfe said, “for rural America.” Gov. Peter Shumlin weighed in, as well: “VTel’s commitment to innovation and technology has enabled the company to provide high-speed internet to rural areas of Vermont. This is good news for VTel customers and for Vermont jobs, economic development and quality of life.” VTel is using a portion of $151 million it has received in federal grants to connect homes and businesses across Vermont’s rural back roads to the Internet. The small company, dating to the late 19th century, is a “lead experimenter,” Guite said, for the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utility System (a New Deal agency given the goal of rural electrification by President Roosevelt) to see if rural telephone companies can remain sustainable and relevant. “No one knows if they are survivable,” Guite said. “They’re going out of business.” Guite said that while most Internet providers divide the fiber to reach individual homes, VTel is “running fiber from the central office to the home, a billion bits per second, not shared with anyone else.” He said Google began that approach in Kansas City and Texas but is charging $70 per home. VTel’s $35 monthly charge suggests the ultra-high-speed connection might be available (in Vermont, at least) to subscribers for whom dial-up connections have been most familiar. “We hope it will work” economically, Guite said. He said the cost of stringing fiber remains about the same as a few years ago, but other technical costs have fallen. “We began to build it about a year ago and began connecting in the last month or two,” he said. “We’re plugging ahead pretty fast. We should be at 10,000 by year’s end.” He said he hopes the appeal of the speed of the connection will hold subscribers for VTel’s triple play (TV, phone and Internet). A recent VTel update to customers said the new service is being extended to all 14 telephone exchanges VTel serves. North Springfield is fully built, the update stated, with multiple crews at work in Springfield, Middletown Springs, Ira, Hartland and Wallingford. The VTel goal is to reach all the exchanges by year’s end. “We’re trying to prove that a standalone high-speed rural network, with GigE to every home, high-definition voice, unlimited voice calling, 500 channels of state-of-the-art video, and 4G LTE wireless can survive in rural America,” Guite said. “The jury is out, but we’re optimistic.”
VTel's gigabit connection draws oohs Written by JOHN BRIGGS Free Press Staff Writer May. 02 burlingtonfreepress.com Family owned Vermont Telephone Co., with 17,500 subscribers, doesn’t play in the Google world, or Comcast’s, but its new $35 a month gigabit service, now reaching 600 subscribers, has drawn attention nationally and internationally. A gigabit in this context is the transfer of one billion bytes per second — a fast Internet connection. VTel plans to connect all of its subscribers to the gigabit service, which it calls its GigE fiber-optic-network service. The company is adding more than 200 homes a week to the GigE service, VTel says, “with the project on target to reach every location in the VTel service area by mid-2014.” A Wall Street Journal blog Friday, headlined “Look out Google Fiber ...” drew wide attention. VTel President Michel Guite said Monday that some 150 tech blogs and publications worldwide picked up the story, including some in Chinese, Hebrew, Spanish and other languages. “It tells me,” he said, “our GigE project might be what I always suspected — i.e., interesting beyond Vermont.” Dan Seitz, in a question-and-answer presentation Monday on the tech blog UPROXX, took note of the VTel effort in a tone of incredulity: “Wait, this is a joke, right?” Affirming that it’s not a joke, he explained that it happened with “your tax dollars” but might be reasonable because it is senseless to replace old copper wires with other than fiber. VTel quotes Ethernet inventor Bob Metcalfe, who praised the small company for doing what Google is doing in Kansas City and Austin, Texas, “but in rural Vermont — gigafication of the Internet. It’s a tremendous win,” Metcalfe said, “for rural America.” Gov. Peter Shumlin weighed in, as well: “VTel’s commitment to innovation and technology has enabled the company to provide high-speed internet to rural areas of Vermont. This is good news for VTel customers and for Vermont jobs, economic development and quality of life.” VTel is using a portion of $151 million it has received in federal grants to connect homes and businesses across Vermont’s rural back roads to the Internet. The small company, dating to the late 19th century, is a “lead experimenter,” Guite said, for the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utility System (a New Deal agency given the goal of rural electrification by President Roosevelt) to see if rural telephone companies can remain sustainable and relevant. “No one knows if they are survivable,” Guite said. “They’re going out of business.” Guite said that while most Internet providers divide the fiber to reach individual homes, VTel is “running fiber from the central office to the home, a billion bits per second, not shared with anyone else.” He said Google began that approach in Kansas City and Texas but is charging $70 per home. VTel’s $35 monthly charge suggests the ultra-high-speed connection might be available (in Vermont, at least) to subscribers for whom dial-up connections have been most familiar. “We hope it will work” economically, Guite said. He said the cost of stringing fiber remains about the same as a few years ago, but other technical costs have fallen. “We began to build it about a year ago and began connecting in the last month or two,” he said. “We’re plugging ahead pretty fast. We should be at 10,000 by year’s end.” He said he hopes the appeal of the speed of the connection will hold subscribers for VTel’s triple play (TV, phone and Internet). A recent VTel update to customers said the new service is being extended to all 14 telephone exchanges VTel serves. North Springfield is fully built, the update stated, with multiple crews at work in Springfield, Middletown Springs, Ira, Hartland and Wallingford. The VTel goal is to reach all the exchanges by year’s end. “We’re trying to prove that a standalone high-speed rural network, with GigE to every home, high-definition voice, unlimited voice calling, 500 channels of state-of-the-art video, and 4G LTE wireless can survive in rural America,” Guite said. “The jury is out, but we’re optimistic.”
Subscribe to:
Post Comments
(
Atom
)
---
Sign by Danasoft - For Backgrounds and Layouts
No comments :
Post a Comment
Please keep your comments polite and on-topic. No profanity