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CFU launches broadband project
Internet service will increase to triple-digit speeds
By Times Staff
6/12/2010 12:00:00 AM
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Trailers like this one will be a common site in Cedar Falls neighborhoods as CFU builds a new, fiber-to-the-premise communications plant. Technicians use equipment in the trailer to join, or splice, fiber optic cables together.
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Cedar Falls Utilities (CFU) will build a community-wide fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) communications plant, replacing CFU's current cable system and bringing state-of-the-art internet speed and reliability to customers’ doors.
The three-year project will begin this fall and will deliver internet connections at 200 megabits per second (mbps) for downstream and 100 mbps for upstream traffic. It will also support up to 100 additional high definition channels and expanded interactive plant services for cable TV subscribers. The switch will take place gradually as the new plant's construction progresses.
Utility officials added the impact the new plant will rival the 1996 launch of CFU’s broadband system, which made Cedar Falls one of the first U.S. cities with community-wide access to affordable high-speed internet service.
CFU General Manager Jim Krieg said that after 15 successful years in the broadband business, the Utility is making a major reinvestment in the community’s quality of life and business climate.
“We know from experience that economic growth comes to cities that keep their infrastructure up to date, whether it’s roads, water, electricity or broadband,” said Krieg. “CFU is going to do what it takes to make sure Cedar Falls has leading-edge communications technology, and maintain economical rates for internet and video services.”
This week, the CFU Board of Trustees awarded bids for the project totaling $12.7 million. The Utility plans to issue revenue bonds and project costs, with repayment from subscriber fees over 10 years.
CFU built its current hybrid fiber-coax (HFC) communications plant in 1995 and launched services in January, 1996. The plant’s backbone is fiber optic cable, with coaxial cable branching out to connect individual homes.
The new system will extend fiber optic cable all the way to homes and businesses. Fiber optic cables are fine strands of glass that conduct signals carried in beams of light. They can transmit hundreds of times more data per second than coaxial cables.
Peak bandwidth use on CFU’s data system grew from 1.5 mbps in 1998 to about 600 mbps in 2009. During the same period, the number of residential and business customers served grew from 1,140 to 9,176.
“Customer growth has been strong, and the amount of bandwidth each customer uses is growing even faster,” Krieg said. “Rather than upgrade the existing plant as many cable providers are doing, we decided to skip a generation of technology and build a more advanced plant that will serve the community well into the future.”
A key advantage of the all-fiber system is superior upstream capacity. A growing share of web applications require high capacity both to and from the internet. Upstream capacity is critical for remote connections to an office network, interactive online learning, video conferencing, transferring medical images, streaming high-resolution video, online gaming and many other tasks and activities.
The FTTP plant can deliver 15 times more download capacity and 10 times more upload capacity than a traditional cable system updated to the most current operating standards, which are known in the industry as DOCSIS 3. (DOCSIS stands for Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification.)
While fast connection speeds may get the big headlines, Krieg noted that all-fiber systems have proven highly reliable, requiring far less repair and maintenance than traditional cable plants. Reliability is critical to the business community, because “broadband today is fourth utility, and if it’s not working the many businesses are at a standstill,” he said.
An HFC plant uses thousands of active devices (such as amplifiers) to keep data flowing between the customer and the service provider. Any one of these devices can fail, interrupting service. In contrast, the all-fiber plant will be a passive optical network, with no active components between the distribution center and the end user. Fewer “moving parts” means fewer points of failure and a more reliable system.
This fall, CFU’s project contractor will build the fiber backbone for the new system. Customer installations will follow from late 2010 through 2012, The downtown and industrial park business communities and some higher-density housing neighborhoods will be converted to the new system first, to enhance their reliability early in the build-out schedule.
As an additional fail-safe, CFU designed the new plant with two network operations centers – one at the Utility Parkway office and one at the Team Data Center in the Industrial and Technology Park.
“The entire network can be run from either location, so we can keep customers in service even if a natural disaster or equipment failure affects one of the operations centers,” Krieg said.
The Communications Utility has planned a major plant upgrade in the 2011-2015 time frame. “
By 2015, our cable plant will be 20 years old and nearing the end of its expected life,” Krieg said. “We’ve been weighing the options with our board, and building the estimated costs gradually into our rates for a number of years. Ultimately, we decided FTTP is the best option for our customers in terms of speed, reliability and long-term economics.”
CFU started installing fiber-to-the-premise in new developments in 2006, so the system is already up and running in a handful of Cedar Falls subdivisions.
CFU operates four separate city-owned utilities, providing electricity, natural gas, water and communications services. The Communications Utility offers internet and cable TV services, and is self-supporting through subscriber fees. No tax money is used to support CFU services.
The Communications Utility earned operating income of $2.4 million on sales of $11.3 million in 2009. The Utility’s earnings are used to repay the money borrowed to build the system, and to keep the plant up to date with changing technology. The Communications Utility paid off $6.9 million of long-term debt while continuing to invest in system improvements during the period.
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