|
|
|
|
Firm pitches fiber optic model for Punxsy |
|
|
|
Front Page -
Front Page Story
|
|
Written by Tom Chapin
|
|
Saturday, 18 April 2009 |
PUNXSUTAWNEY — Representatives from healthcare, business and education attended a presentation about bringing an independent, fiber optic network to the area Thursday, but none such network can exist here unless there is an interest.
Steve Zwerin, vice-president of business development for Zito Media Communications of Coudersport, explained that rural areas struggle as technology changes.
As rural areas struggle in this way, it becomes more challenging for hospitals, schools and businesses to keep their heads above water as technology changes.
Zwerin presented information from a 2004 study by the Northwest Pennsylvania Regional Planning Commission, which said that the region's existing broadband service "will be obsolete when it comes to attracting new business, improving healthcare and enhancing the quality of life.
"Telecommunications is a necessity, not a luxury," the study said.
"DSL is becoming the ‘dial-up' of today," Zwerin said. "Some people still can't get DSL."
Zwerin explained that a fiber optic line, in the telecommunications arena, "is the modern day transport for data, and eveything today — voice, video, all of it — is broken into data bits."
He said existing copper lines have limitations, as they are subject to interference and corrosion.
"Its properties are not designed for incredible data speeds," Zwerin said.
He said light is transmitted through optic glass, and able to compress tremendous amounts of data into one single strand. Multiple strands of fiber optic lines are compressed in one line for different types of use.
The telecommunications arena is changing rapidly, as everything is going digital, and people are communicating in different ways. Communication is entering an era of visual communication, Zwerin said, and that requires more bandwidth.
"Today, everything is data bits: Voice, video, the Internet," he said. "It's all transported into one pipe, but the problem is, the pipe isn't out there for us."
Zwerin said the model created by Zito Media is a carrier independent structure, in which the fiber optic ring — which surrounds areas with designated points — is owned and maintained by a private provider, although any qualified provider may have access to fiber optic strands.
The ring is designed and built with local interests and needs in mind, and there is no authority or entity required.
Systems such as these are already up and running in areas such as Kane, Ridgway and Corry, Zwerin said. Another system is under construction in DuBois, and could be operational by this fall.
Craig Coon, director of community & economic development for Jefferson County, said this is part of a 14-county effort to create a fiber optic backbone in the North Central region.
To build a fiber optic ring locally could cost between $1 million and $1.25 million, with the goal of creating rings in the Brookville and Punxsutawney areas before connecting eventually to a ring in Reynoldsville and the unfolding ring in DuBois, Coon said.
Working through North Central, funding for a fiber optic ring could come through applying for about $10 million in federal stimulus money.
Zwerin's presentation Thursday was to explain the idea, but what must come next is further interest from the community, Coon said.
Alluding to a comment made by Marlene Lellock, executive director of the Punxsutawney Area Chamber of Commerce, Zwerin said Interstate 80 does not come through Punxsuatwney. But as business and communications becoming even more dependent on technology, the highways of tomorrow are through fiber optics lines.
"The reality is now, the community has a chance to get a 100-lane interstate, and economic interstate brought right to the community," he said.
Zwerin said this is "a rare opportunity to extract the vision of the future for the community, through business owners and leaders to put in place an open-access infrastructure for decades of prosperity for Punxsutawney and the surrounding area."
|
|
Last Updated ( Monday, 20 April 2009 )
|
|
Click to Compare Cards online for special deals on the business credit cards that meet your needs. |
|
|
|
