March 10, 2014

By Monica Gleberman

A new form of technology is being constructed for Florida residents that will help change the way they connect to the Internet and ultimately communicate through technology. Nothing is worse than trying to download something and seeing that circle bar showing that your computer is processing.

The city of Longmont hopes to change that with its ability to tap into the state’s fiber optic network that is slowly but surely being constructed. Uptown Services was recently awarded a contract by Longmont Power & Communications to design and build a 10-giagibit network to help residents hook up twice as fast as they are now. 

Although fiber technology has been around for years, it was only recently that developers were able to harness the technology in a way to allow for the transmission of information from one place to another. It’s a complex system. Basically, it uses light and sends pulses through an optical fiber. The light forms an electromagnetic carrier wave that carries the information to its ultimate destination.

The benefits of using fiber are that it is quicker, more reliable, and has the ability to carry loads of data though a single high bandwidth fiber cable. Thus, there’s less cost for installation and maintenance.

In an article published by local paper the Times Call, residents said they were just so used to the constant lack of Internet connectivity when using wireless connections they had no idea a change like this could be made. “I just assumed that there are spikes and there’s outages, and that’s just the way it is,” said local business owner Brandon Knudsen.

Knudsen said multiple customers would complain about the lack of connectivity and it became more of a “constant headache” than an actual bonus to his business. However, now that he is able to use the fiber technology he has seen a drastic change.

Our customers are getting 100 to 120 (megabits per second), which is ridiculous … before we were lucky if we got three or four,” said Knudsen. “We haven’t even had a blip in it. There’s been not one phone call, not one customer complaint.”

This is just the beginning of the approved $45.3 million bond referendum. It will take the city more time to roll it out to everyone and almost 11 years to pay it back. However, many say the savings and lack of complaints make it all worth it. 


Edited by Rory J. Thompson

 

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