SPRING
HORIZON Fiber VOIP Internet
The Future Is NOW
Wireless Television What does it all mean? How fast? What does it cost?
A supplement publication of the Newport Miner and Gem State Newspapers
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T
Editor’s Note:
his issue of Horizon is a beginning road map to high-speed communication and online entertainment services available now and coming soon to this region. We say beginning because just like the Internet that most of these advances are built
on, they are evolving at lightning speed; what is true when we talk with people one minute may change by the time we talk to them again. It is the nature of the beast as it evolves because of rapid changes in technology, competition and new ideas in marketing. As in the past, there isn’t one road to the World Wide Web, and there never will be; some are smoother and some get you there, but with more potholes and a lot slower. Speed is relative; what was fast five years ago for a connection would not even be tolerated today. All this we faced while trying to explain what is available in this area today. At the core of the recent revolution in Pend Oreille and even West Bonner counties is the Pend Oreille Public Utility District’s $34 million fiber-to-every-home-and-business project. It will begin operation in April with the completion date in September. But there has been and will be a myriad of ways and companies to connect you to the Internet and television networks that aren’t part of the PUD system. The cost and ways to compare them vary. Our stories only begin to touch on this and we nailed them down for our readers with various amounts of success. We have provided a glossary of terms and explanation of what some of the consumer demands are. But it will be important to talk to the providers and study what they offer to make sure it is what you need and can afford. Everyone has different needs and budgets. Some people complain when there are no choices in the market while others complain when there are too many. We believe the latter that we now face has made this a better place to live and work. -FJW
Community Horizon PUBLISHED: April 2013 PUBLISHER: Fred Willenbrock WRITERS & EDITORS: Michelle Nedved, Janelle Atyeo and Don Gronning DESIGN: Michelle Nedved, Charisse Neufeldt, Pandi Gruver ADVERTISING: Lindsay Guscott, Cindy Boober and Susan Willenbrock
HORIZON is published quarterly as a supplement to The Newport Miner and Gem State Miner, 421 S. Spokane, Newport WA 99156. TELEPHONE: 509-447-2433 E-MAIL: theminer@povn.com. FAX: 509-447-9222 Reproduction of articles & photographs is prohibited without permission of the publisher. See all issues at The Miner Online: www.pendoreillerivervalley.com Spring 2013|Horizon 3
Horizon photo|Janelle Atyeo
CNS manager Joe Onley pulls up a demo on a large touch screen at the PUD’s fiber showroom.
All systems go for PUD fiber BY JANELLE ATYEO AND FRED WILLENBROCK
A
fter years of planning and construction, the first homes
in Pend Oreille County are ready for service through the Pend Oreille Public Utility District’s fiber optic network.
“We’re really close to opening the flood gates for being able to provide service,” Community Network System Manager Joe Onley said from behind his desk at the PUD’s fiber showroom on Pine Street. The project funded by a federal grant had a deadline of March 31 but the PUD was granted an extension last week un4 Horizon|2013 Spring
til September so they can work through the summer to connect every home and business in south Pend Oreille County. The winter had slowed worked primarily on the underground portion. The Fertile Valley area, which includes Sacheen Lake, will be the first to light up. On Wednesday, March 27, Onley said the equipment was in place and they were ready. Onley said they chose that spot because it has a relatively large population base and is underserved. There are about 100 potential customers. Onley said this doesn’t mean that CONTINUED ON PAGE 5 Miner photo|file
(Right) Tetra Tech workers lift a fiber cable to place on the power poles along Deer Valley Road at Coyote Trail in the summer of 2011.
Courtesy image|Federal Communications Commission
The National Broadband map shows where high speed Internet is available. In this case, broadband is defined as download speeds from 2-6 Mbps and up. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4
other areas where the system is completed won’t be able to call a provider
and order connections in April and during the summer, up to the September completion date. What could happen though is the PUD contractors will get
out quickly to put the electronics in the box and supply power from the meter to the system but the ISP the customer selects could be booked with new orders.
While Newport residents have six options for service – dial-up, DSL, wireless, CONTINUED ON PAGE 6
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have a longer wait. Part of the PUD’s new system includes satellite, cable and fiber – and Diamond a fiber pipeline to Douglas County Lake has almost as many, those living PUD’s equipment that pulls television in Fertile Valley currently have two programming and other entertainment options: dial-up and satellite. Dial-up into the network. The pipeline will run is notoriously slow, and the satellite is through Spokane where the PUD will costly and can have spotty service. pick up local television networks and Onley said they wanted to give the In- deliver the signal to their property in ternet service providers the area where Newport. From there any ISP can arthey would have the most success. Per range to take the signals and sell them state law, the PUD to retail customers over What’s Next: can’t sell Internet the PUD fiber system. The service directly to PUD charges the ISP their The PUD is planning customers. There standard commercial an open house ahead must be an Internet connect fee of about $600. of hooking up the service provider So far only iFiber has an(ISP) acting as a nounced plans to do this. first customers. The middleman. They use this same DougBroadband Festival is There are three las County equipment hubs in the Sacheen set for April 17-20 at now to service customers area, and most are the fiber showroom on in Douglas, Grant and served by the over- Pine Street and Highway Chelan counties. head line, which Onley said this television 41. Hours are 3-7 p.m. was first to be compipeline will need some weekdays and 11 a.m. to testing and should be plete throughout the PUD’s system. ready by summer. 3 p.m. Saturday. The PUD is As of mid-March, the finished with the PUD’s underground serbuild-out of its fiber backbone, having CONTINUED ON PAGE 7 taken fiber down every major road in South Pend Oreille County. From the 400 miles of overhead backbone, the Horizon photo|Janelle Atyeo service drops are done, meaning if you (Right) The PUD’s fiber display house shows have electricity that comes in from an how an overhead fiber line will connect to a overhead line, you are set to go for fiber typical house. From the power pole, the black service. fiber cable will travel toward the electric But if your neighbor has his electric meter and connect to in-home wiring in a line coming in underground, he may dedicated utility box. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5
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new service. They’ll have much more competition, though. Regional service vice drops were about half done. Onley providers got wind of the fiber build out, said that system will be ready by July and they’re moving in for a piece of the 4, which will pretty much complete the pie too. fiber build-out project. Once the customer decides to subThe fiber lines follow the PUD’s power scribe to fiber service, there will be a lines. If your home is served by overhead small bit of work to complete the conpower, your fiber will come in overhead. nection. Currently, all PUD customers If your power line runs underground, served by overhead power connections so will the fiber. The fiber network will have had their service box installed on need power and the PUD will pay for their houses next to their electric methat by hooking up before the meter. ters. Fiber optic cables run to that box, Power will have to be turned off for a but so far the box is empty. short period of time when they hook up. When a household or business decides Those interested in learning more can it wants fiber service, they’ll contact drop by during an an ISP and get on the open house in late schedule to be hooked “We’re really close to April. The PUD is up. The PUD techniopening the flood gates for planning a Broadcians will visit the band Festival April being able to provide service.” house and install the 17-20 at the fiber electronics in the outshowroom on Pine Joe Onley door box and hook it Street and Highway Community Network System Manager to electric power. From 41. Hours will be there, an ISP can get 3-7 p.m. weekdays you connected. and 11 a.m. to 3 Depending on what p.m. on Saturday. service is requested, the interior wiring They’ll have demonstration booths, could be minimal or relatively extenan expo of Internet service providers, sive. With internet protocol television speed test computers set up, and experts for example, hard wiring by a certified on hand to answer questions. technician is required with a special CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6
The hookup
The ISPs are gearing up to serve customers. Local ISPs who have been with the county since the days of crawling dialup speeds have come up with their game plans for delivering the fast,
CONTINUED ON PAGE 34 Miner photo|file
(Right) Tetra Tech worker Daryl Hudson tightens the fiber line just hung along Deer Valley Road at Coyote Trail in the summer of 2011.
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Horizon photo|Janelle Atyeo
PUD Community Network System manager Joe Onley shows a splice box where fiber lines are connected out in the PUD’s system.
What is fiber? BY JANELLE ATYEO
W
hat is fiber? Part of a balanced diet?
Threads of animal fleece that can be spun into a cozy wool?
But we’re talking about the thread-thin strands of glass that are capable of transmitting data by light at super fast speeds: Fiber optics. Optical fiber as a communication medium can move data over long distances without weakening the signal. The giant spools of fiber cable you may have seen along the road during the built-out have bundles of fiber encased in insulated black plastic. Inside, the strands of glass are bundled – up to 12 strands in some segments – in tubes of different colored plastic. Considering all those bundles, the Pend Oreille PUD has strung 31,000 miles of fiber – enough to go around the world, says Joe Onley, manager of the district’s Community Network System. The PUD’s fiber system has 7,000 access points. New technologies are allowing fiber 8 Horizon|2013 Spring
to transmit data at speeds up to 400 gigabytes (GB) per second, as reported by Wired Magazine ahead of the Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition/National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference, held in Anaheim in midMarch. The PUD’s fiber line maxes out at a 20 GB connection between us and the world, according to Onley. The actual connection to people’s homes will have a governor on it that limits that speed. Internet service providers will be offering top speeds of 100 Mbps. Onley calculated out that at max, 200 people could be using their full 100 Mb simultaneously. Speeds are also limited by your Internet service provider (ISP) and the agreements they have with their upstream provider. Upstream providers are companies ISPs pay to access larger networks. Onley explained that you might have a 100 Mbps connection going out of your home, but when you get to Google, Google may limit you to 2 Mbps, tops. “Your under the constraints of the world,” Onley said. Fiber optic cable is said to have a 30year life span. Onley says it’s probably File photo
(Right) Fiber optic cable is made of flexible strands of glass that can transmit digital signals by turning data signals into light waves.
longer, but the technology hasn’t been around long enough to tell. “Honestly, I think it’s infinite,” he said. And he sees the uses of fiber having infinite possibilities. Onley said he can’t think of any new,
mind blowing devices coming out in the near future, but he thinks the future of technology will make this generation of devices – the iPads, smart phones, etc. – more effective information gathering devices.
Glossary of broadband terms 3G:
Third Generation, term describing cellular technology capable of at least 384 k data transmission, usually wireless transport.
4G:
Abbreviation for fourth-generation wireless, the stage of broadband mobile communications that will supersede the third generation (3G). Specifies a mobile broadband standard offering both mobility and very high bandwidth.
10, 100, 1,000 Mbs:
Ethernet terminology describing speed of data transmission in mega (1,000) bits per second. 1,000 Mbs, often termed gig or Gbs, is 1,000 times one million or transmitting a billion bits per second.
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL):
A technology that transmits a data signal over twisted-pair copper, often over facilities deployed originally to provide voice telephony. Downstream rates are higher than upstream rates. ADSL technology enables data transmission over existing copper wiring at
data rates several hundred times faster than analog modems.
Bandwidth:
Measure of capacity in “the pipe.” Digital Bandwidth is measured in bits per second (bps).
Bit:
The smallest unit of digital transmission, a single state, often expressed as On or Off or also a “one” or “zero.” A million bits per second is Mbps.
Bluetooth:
An industry standard using unlicensed radio frequency spectrum for wireless connectivity over short distances to link computers, wireless handsets and other devices.
Broadband:
Data transmission scheme that sends multiple pieces of data over a single medium. Often refers to highspeed data transfer speeds when benchmarked with dial-up. Can include DSL, cable, fiber, etc. The Federal Communications Commission defines (2009) broadband as “Internet access that is always on and faster than the traditional dial-up access,” and 4 Mbps actual download and 1 Mbps actual upload.
Byte:
Consists of 8 bits and can convey 256 separate characters. A million bytes per second is MBps.
Cat 5:
Four pair of twisted telephone wires capable of up to 100 million
bits (100 Mbps) data transmission for up to 100 meters (inside wiring).
Cable:
Broadband access using a cable modem and cable line. Offers speeds between 512 Kbps and 20 Mbps, using coaxial cable. Customers must have existing cable access, and the cost of bringing service into an area, trenching cable, can be prohibitive.
Cloud:
An approach that has both data and programs reside at a server farm/network.
CPE:
Customer Premise Equipment, the “box” or device that is the interface or gateway with the customer to the broadband utility.
Dark fiber:
A fiber optic cable that is laid and ready for use, but for which the service provider has not provided modulating electronics; usually contrasted to lit fiber, which is fiber optic cable in use to provide wired communications. CONTINUED ON PAGE 10
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Data cap:
The maximum amount of data a person can up/download during a billing cycle before having their bandwidth throttled, Internet shut off or facing overage fees.
Dial-up:
On demand Internet access using a modem and regular telephone line. Offers speeds up to 56 Kbps over a twisted pair of phone lines. It is cheap, but slow compared with other technologies. The speed may degrade due to the amount of line noise.
Digital divide:
A common euphemism that describes the haves and have-nots of the information age, usually urban versus rural communities.
DSL:
Digital Subscriber Line, technology using the unused digital portion of a regular copper telephone line to transmit and receive information. A special modem and adapter are required. Speeds range from several hundred kilobits per second to megabits per second. It doesn’t interfere with normal telephone use, but bandwidth is affected by the distance from the network hubs (must be within 3.1 miles of a telephone company switch).
Ethernet:
A type of digital transmission service.
Fiber optics:
A strand of glass thinner than a human hair that is capable of carrying a light signal close to 70 miles without amplification. The light can be pulsed in a single wavelength to represent 45 gigabits of information.
Fiber-to-the-Premise (FTTP):
A fiber deployment architecture in which optical fiber extends all the way to the customer’s premise. Also known as Fiber to the Home (FTTH) or Fiber to the Building (FTTB).
High speed:
Synonymous to broadband for quantifying the amount of data.
IPTV:
Internet Protocol Television, a schema to provide television content over fiber optic or broadband networks.
ISP:
Internet Service Provider. A network service provider that supplies a path to the World Wide Web without controlling the content.
Next Generation 911 (NG911):
An emergency response system that integrates the core functionalities of the E911 system and also supports 10 Horizon|2013 Spring
multimedia communications (such as texting, email and video) to the dispatch call center and to emergency personnel on the ground.
NoaNet:
Started out in June of 1999 as a consortium of PUDs that recognized the digital divide plight of rural communities. It was named Northwest Open Access Network and became a not-forprofit agency that interconnects PUDs via the Bonneville Power Administration’s public benefit fiber.
POTs:
Plain old telephone service, an industry accepted acronym that defines the telephone lines connected to most residential users.
Satellite:
Internet access through signals transmitted via satellite. Latency is typically high.
T-1:
Bell system introduced the T carrier system, which digitized voice into 24 channels, in the 1960s. This system allowed four wires to carry the information of 48 wires. The bandwidth of T-1 is defined at 1.544 Mbps. A voice channel is 64 Kbps.
Tether:
To take your cell phone or tablet and turn it into a “hotspot” for your other devices. A way to access the Internet with a device that doesn’t have Internet access, by connecting it to a device that does.
RSP:
Retail Service Provider, similar to ISP. The provider of services to the end user. Units: Kilo (k), Mega (M), Giga (G), and Tera (T) represents thousand, million, billion, and trillion respectively. Pecta (P) is quadrillion.
VOD:
Video on Demand, a technology or service that allows a video feed to be called upon near instantaneously for viewing, usually for a fee.
VOIP:
Voice over Internet Protocol, a technology that allows for carrier grade voice communication to occur over a broadband connection. By using the Internet, VOIP offerings typically are a fixed monthly fee for unlimited long distance services.
Wireless:
Internet access through a connection to a high-speed, cellular-like local multi-point communications system. Offers speeds from 500 Kbps to 3 Mbps.
Wi-Fi:
Wireless networking.
Can’t afford Internet? There is another way BY DON GRONNING
S
o you want to go online but don’t have an Internet connection or
maybe even a computer. What to do?
Horizon photo|Don Gronning
The Pend Oreille County Library District has Internet computers at all four of its branches – in Ione, Metaline Falls, Cusick and Newport. Here a group of people use the computers at the Newport Library.
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If you can get to one of the area libraries, you can get online for free, with a broadband connection. All four libraries in Pend Oreille County – in Ione, Metaline Falls, Cusick and Newport – offer free Internet for their patrons, as well as technical help if you need it. In West Bonner County, the Priest River and Blanchard libraries also offer Internet use.
True, you have to be there when they’re open and sometimes you may have to wait, but for those who need a broadband connection, they are an answer. People use the library Internet for a variety of things, anything from checking email to job hunting to playing games or shopping. Katie Crill is the head librarian at Priest River. She says in 2012 there were 19,300 Internet users at the two West Bonner libraries, with most at Priest River, where there are 10 terminals. The Priest River library has a 20 Mbps connection speed, so it is pretty fast. The library district upgraded its system a couple years ago. She says how many are in use at any one time varies. CONTINUED ON PAGE 12
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“It’s hard to predict,” she says. “It’s first come first serve.” June Ferguson was using the Priest River library recently. She has Internet at home but finds the library’s connection faster. “I use it to send out resumes,” she said. Like many people, she also appreciates the library’s printing capabilities. Kelly Hansen was at the Newport Library with her daughter, Chelsea. She also uses the library’s printer. She has a computer and printer at home. “But it’s out of ink,” she says. She was helping her daughter with a homework assignment. Vicente Gonzalez was watching YouTube at the Newport Library. “I come every chance I can,” he says. He has a dialup connection at his home. In addition to YouTube, he also uses the Internet to communicate with friends, some of whom live halfway around the world. “I talk to friends all over,” he said. One of the people he corresponds with lives in Japan. Jean Wakely also has dialup at home. She uses the Newport Library. “It’s nice to be able to come here,” she says. She uses the library for job training. She also used the library Internet when she lived in Gig Harbor. Will Haven uses the library Internet
at Newport to shop for music. “I’ve been here three times today,” he laughs. Most of the libraries have an hour a day limit but if nobody is waiting you can usually get on longer. The libraries also offer Internet training. Pend Oreille County Library director Mary Fouts says they have a class advertised but it is usually easier to provide individual instruction. In the north part of Pend Oreille County, the library has one of the fastest Internet connections available. “Our service here is good because we’re on fiber,” says Lynne Barnes of the Metalines library. Most people who have Internet connections use phone lines or satellite, she said, which can be slow or spotty. If you have your own computer, you can bring it to the library to go online over the library’s WiFi network. In fact, if you have a laptop computer there are many places in Newport and Priest River where you can go online for free at places called “hotspots.” Dan Larsen has an Internet connection at his home but often uses the free connection with his smart phone in Priest River. He can check his email at AJ’s Café in Priest River, or a variety of other places in the downtown area. In Newport, you can go online at Owen’s Grocery and Deli, as well as the library. Owner Rob Owen says they are
Horizon photo|Don Gronning
Joanne Gillmore was at the Newport Library checking out a potential home to buy in Montana recently. She says she used the library’s Internet a lot for job hunting when she first moved to town.
considering putting in a counter where people could sit and look out the window while online. In addition to the libraries, there are free wireless connections in Newport
by the POVN office and at the city park. In Ione, there is a hotspot near the fire station in Metaline and the Western Star Bar and Grille, and in Metaline Falls near the post office and at Kathy’s Café.
Horizon photo|Don Gronning
The Priest River branch of the West Bonner Library District upgraded its broadband Internet to 20 Mbps download in August 2011. Library patrons can use the Internet computers for free both at the Priest River and Blanchard branches, as well as go online with their own computers. 12 Horizon|2013 Spring
Horizon photo|Michelle Nedved
Wayne Antcliff, owner of Concept Cable, stands outside his truck. Concept, located in Oldtown/Newport, has been in business since the early 1990s and offers television and Internet services.
BY MICHELLE NEDVED
C
oncept Cable came into existence in 1991 and began construc-
Concept Cable 208-437-4544 www.conceptcable.com Headquarters: wwOldtown/Newport Employees: Six Startup year: 1991 Services offered: Internet, TV
tion on their
and local channels are located. This past week Concept Cable equipment in Spokane to receive local channels there and send them up the fiber line to Newport. This provides better reliability than the satellite receivers and weather will not affect reception. Concept Cable offers four Internet service packages, based on transfer speed:
system in 1993. Current owner Wayne Antcliff, and his wife Lila, purchased the company from Wayne’s father, Keith, earlier this year.
Over the years, Concept has built a network of coaxial and fiber lines to homes and businesses in the Priest River, Oldtown, Newport and Diamond Lake areas. Homes are connected to the fiber through coaxial cables already in place for cable television. They have also developed some wireless Internet capabilities. Along with their office in Newport, they have several acres near Newport High School where their television satellite receivers for networks
Essential (3mbps for downloads, 1mbps for uploads), Uptown (6mb/1.5mb), Residential Express (9mb/2mb), and The Zone (15mb/2.5mb). Customers who also purchase cable television through Concept get a discount on their Internet service. For example, the Essential Internet package costs $27.95 a month for cable customers and $51.85 a month for non-cable customers. The Lifeline Basic Channels package for cable costs $23.90 a month and the Extended Basic Channels package costs $52.95. So, a customer who gets the Essential Internet package along
with the Extended Basic Channels package will pay a total of $80.90 per month. Additional channel packages such as HBO and CineMax cost extra: HBO is $12.95 a month and includes six channels; MAX is $10.95 a month and includes three channels in addition to CineMax. Starz! is $12.95 a mwonth and Showtime/TMC is $12.95 a month. Antcliff said their bandwidth usage has increased more than 20 times since 2007. They have added equipment to increase potential Internet speeds over cable of 50 megabits per second download and 20 Mb/s upload or what he calls “Comcast” speeds. It will be available to higher end users soon and will reduce the load on all their Internet customers. Concept does not have plans to buy into the PUD’s fiber system and isn’t on the list of ISP’s authorized by the PUD, Antcliff said. He also doesn’t plan to use the PUD television programing pipeline from Douglas County PUD. Antcliff said there are additional network charges from internet protocol television that he isn’t sure he can pass on to customers. Antcliff says the television part of the business offers slim profit margins. The networks and local channels charge a few for each customer and the rates keep going up. He offers about 169 channels now and is always negotiating for more. Spring 2013|Horizon 13
Pend Oreille Valley Networks 509-447-3067 www.povn.net Headquarters: Newport Employees: 5 Startup year: 1996 Services offered: Fiber, wireless and dial-up Internet service and support, website hosting and design
P
BY JANELLE ATYEO
OVN is aiming to be ahead of the rush when it comes to fiber.
For customers interested in taking the service when the PUD’s system goes live starting in April, POVN is offering preinstallations. But as the oldest internet provider in the market they will also keep and offer their other services including over existing phone lines and wireless. All these services depend in some way on connections to the PUD fiber backbone though. When it comes to pricing for retail fiber service on the new PUD network, POVN’s operations vice president Melanie Jones says they’ll have a range of packages, from basic and standard offerings to business class service, packages with VOIP telephone, and even packages tailored to gamers. The gaming package will get all of your devices hooked up – dad’s Xbox, the kids’ Wii, mom’s Kindle – in an in-home network. “We can do bundles depending on what people want,” Jones said. Their standard package, with a 100 Mbps fiber connection, will cost $74.95
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per month to start. Jones explained that the price includes the PUD’s $35 introductory wholesale rate, plus $34.95 for POVN’s service. The introductory rate from the PUD will end in 2015, going up to $55 for a wholesale connection for each customer. The 100 Mbps is more than a lot of people need, Jones says, adding that they have basic dialup customers who just want to check their email. They are perfectly happy with the 56 Kbps connection that costs them $16.95 per month, she said. For the low-end fiber user, POVN will offer a
2 Mbps connection. “We know the area. We know our customers,” Jones said. POVN doesn’t plan to offer Internet television. Instead, Jones said, they’ll educate people on what programming is available on the Internet. People can watch shows through services such as Netflix and Hulu, and even at the big networks sites – abc.com or nbc.com – you can get
full episodes of most of their shows online, she said. The fiber network will greatly expand POVN’s service area, and Jones said they’re very excited about that. There have been areas they’ve never been able reach with their wireless signal. Mountains and trees block line of site. With the fiber network, the new areas opened to POVN include: Coyote Trail, the top of Deer Valley, Sacheen Lake, Fertile Valley, Spring Valley and Conklin Meadows. POVN began offering dialup service in 1996 from Newport using a partial T-1 line provided by GTE. The company is still owned by its original founder, Tom Walton. When the PUD put up the fiber optic backbone, POVN became one of the first users. POVN is hooked to fiber at its Newport office, and it beams that signal wirelessly to a tower on Cooks Mountain, which expands coverage down the Pend Oreille River. The signal bounces its way to Metaline Falls and over to Clark Fork and the Sandpoint area. Another of POVN’s towers hooks into the fiber at Diamond Lake, providing that area with a stronger signal. Fiber adds a whole new game and a whole new reach for POVN, along with new services such as VOIP phones.
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POVN operations vice president Melanie Jones sits outside of the company’s Newport office, using the free wireless hotspot offered there.
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Verizon Wireless 800-256-4646 www.verizonwireless.com Headquarters: Basking Ridge, N.J. Employees: 85,000 Startup year: 2000 Services offered: Cell phone service and 4G Internet
Courtesy image|Verizon Wireless
Verizon’s HomeFusion device is installed on your home and transmits a wireless signal allowing your devices to access the Internet over Verizon’s 4G network.
vider’s network to browse the
BY JANELLE ATYEO
A
nyone with a Smartphone is used to using a cell service pro-
Internet or check their Facebook feed.
Cell providers have wireless networks that can connect other devices too.
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Verizon serves tablets such as the Samsung Galaxy or the iPad with data plans through its wireless network. You can also use some cell phones to share your data with Wi-Fi enabled devices. Another option is a USB modem. The Pantech USB modem is about
the size of a flip phone, but instead of folding out to reveal a keypad, the cover swivels to reveal a USB plug. You plug this into your computer to give it Internet access anywhere you can connect to Verizon’s signal. CONTINUED ON PAGE 17
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 16
The device costs $30 with a twoyear service contract. From there, you pay for the data based on your plan. There are other USB modems available for about $20. Once you buy the device, you pay for monthly access. A data-only plan with a USB modem is about $50 for 4 GB of data. That’s $20 for line access through the modem, plus $30 for the 4 GB. The price increases with higher data limits, of course, up to $60 for 10 GB. Plus the $20 line access, the plan would cost $80 per month. The Jetpack is another mobile Internet option. It costs $50, or it’s free with a two-year contract. The Jetpack sends out a wireless signal that can connect up to five devices through the 4G network. Data plans for the Jetpack are the same as the USB modem. Monthly line access is $20, and data limits range from 4 GB for $30 a month to 10 GB for $60. Brandi Fowler, Verizon representative at Exbabylon in Newport, said they sell a lot of these devices. People like them because they’re small and they’re mobile, she said. They can take them anywhere in Verizon’s nationwide network and get Internet service. A not-so-mobile option for people who want Internet at their home using Verizon’s signal is the HomeFusion. A canister-like cylinder is installed at the roofline. It allows users
to connect up to 20 wireless devices. There is no installation charge, but it does require a two-year contract with Verizon. The equipment costs $99.99, a one-time fee. The HomeFusion gives you speeds between 5-12 Mbps down and 2-5 Mbps up. The price depends on how many gigabytes per month you use. Those that want the 10 GB play will pay $60 per month, $90 for 20 GB and $120 for 30 GB. You can add HomeFusion to your cell phone data plan for an extra $20 per month, which will get you 10 GB. Just how quickly will you use up 10 GB of bandwidth in a month? Let’s say: • I send about five emails a day. That’s 1 megabyte per month. • I visit quite a few websites – maybe 25 a day on average. That’s 750 MB. • I like to stream music – about two hours worth of grooving a day. That’s 3.6 GB. • I’ve got to watch some YouTube now and then. Maybe just two minutes of high-def LOL Cats video on the average day. Add 2 GB for streaming video through the month. CONTINUED ON PAGE 31 Courtesy image|Verizon Wireless
(Right) The USB modem is about the size of a flip phone, but it opens to reveal a USB plug that can give your computer Internet access over Verizon’s 4G network.
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iFiber 866-284-3842 www.ifiber.tv Headquarters: Ephrata Employees: 25 Startup year: 2005 Services offered: Fiber Internet service and support, IPTV, VOIP phone
Courtesy photo|iFiber
The iFiber Mobile Demonstration Center will be in Newport for the summer. People will be able to experience what iFiber will be offering in the way of broadband Internet service. Pictured are Tiffany Matson, customer service, Kelly Ryan iFiber chief executive officer, Gina Thompson, customer service, and Jason Pattison, iFiber chief operating officer.
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BY JANELLE ATYEO
A
new player in Pend Oreille County isn’t new to the retail
fiber connection business. Service provider iFiber has been offering fiber to the home
month and uses existing wiring in your home. Features include unlimited long distance, and as many as 18 other special features for which some companies have an additional fee, Ryan points out. Those include features such as voicemail to email, three-way calling and caller ID. For IPTV – Internet protocol television – in its current service area, iFiber charges $80 per month for its premium package, offering more than 200 channels, 29 of them HD channels. There
with wholesale costs usually increasing when sent out over the internet. Ryan says they’ll have triple play packages for customers who want TV, phone and Internet service. He said they’re still nailing down prices based on what the PUD is charging, but in the other counties they service, the package costs around $100 a month. Customers will need to use a set-top box for each television. Two boxes come with the service package, and additional boxes can be rented for $5 per month
are additional charges for HBO ($15.95), Showtime ($12.95), Cinemax ($12.95), and Starz/Encore ($12.95). They will receive their television network and local programing from the PUD’s recently built pipeline to Douglas County PUD’s equipment that pulls all the programing for use on the fiber network. This is were iFiber receives their programing now for Grant, Douglas and Chelan county customers. They negotiate the contracts with the networks
each. Cable subscribers with DVRs are used to taking advantage of watching their shows when they want to and fast-forwarding through commercials. IPTV features go beyond even that he said. Ryan describes IPTV as having the best of what satellite television has to offer – all the expanded programming – plus local programming. Then add all that’s cool on the Internet that’s interac-
connections through Grant County PUD’s system since 2005.
At the end of March, iFiber set up shop in Newport. Beginning in mid-April, they plan to offer fiber to the home Internet connections using the Pend Oreille PUD’s system. Voice over Internet (VOIP) phone service will also be available through iFiber, and IPTV will come this summer. Kelly Ryan, iFiber CEO, said they’ll offer the full 100 Mbps connection. “We don’t throttle it. It’s wide open,” he said, though limitations do apply. (See separate story, What is Fiber?) The Internet connection through iFiber will cost $59.95 per month. A onetime install fee is $99.95, but Ryan said that fee also includes the first month of service. Phone service will cost $29.95 per
tive. “It is truly the next generation of television,” Ryan said. Because all of those videos – especially 3D video – takes a lot of bandwidth, fiber connections are ideal for supporting IPTV. IFiber has been involved in IPTV since the early days. They brokered their first IPTV contract around the year 2000, working through many bugs with the new technology. The iFiber company formed out of a production firm that started serving the Seattle market in the mid-1990s. The company is privately owned by about 80 different investors, Ryan said. When Grant County PUD started stringing fiber, iFiber got involved early on. Now they have thousands of customers there, about 70 percent of the market, according to Ryan. “If a person takes a fiber to the home product, seven out of 10 times, they’re taking it from us,” he said. They serve Grant, Chelan and Douglas counties. While they’re headquartered in Ephrata, the Newport office is located at the corner of Highway 41 and Pine Street. Ryan said they’ll staff the office with a crew of about six to 10 people. He expects they’ll be in the “construction” phase for about a year. That means running Cat 5 cable inside customers’ homes and hooking up routers. After that, they’ll have a local staff offering maintenance services and technical help.
Step back in time Ride our restored antique train. Tour millennia-old Gardner Cave. Watch tundra swans herald spring. Paddle the Pend Oreille River. Camp in the wilderness. Pend Oreille River Tourism Alliance www.porta-us.com
Priest River Development Corporation can help you relocate your business to beautiful Priest River, Idaho by offering lowcost, L-1 light industrial zoned land. Call to view the available spaces or land in the Priest River Industrial Park.
Light Industrial Space for lease
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A need for speed What speeds do I need for Skype, Netflix, video games, etc.? FROM SPEEDTEST.NET JANUARY 2012
Here are the recommended connection speeds for many popular broadband activities. If you are doing multiple things at once online or sharing a connection with multiple computers, then these recommended speeds may not be enough. All speeds are provided megabits per second (Mbps). Skype video and voice calling • For voice calls: 0.1 mbps download / 0.1 mbps upload • For video calls: 0.5 mbps download / 0.5 mbps upload • For HD video calls: 1.5 mbps download / 1.5 mbps upload Netflix streaming video • Basic-quality video: 1.5 mbps download • High-quality video: 3.0 mbps download YouTube streaming video • Recommended: at least 0.5 mbps download YouTube offers several quality levels for videos that you can use. The lower-numbers (360p) indicate that the video is smaller and uses less bandwidth, but also has less detailed
images. The more detailed the video (480p, 720p), the more bandwidth it takes to stream. Choose the highest video quality that allows you to stream without repeated stops and starts. Hulu streaming video • Recommended: at least 1.0 mbps Hulu also offers several different quality levels for different connection speeds. Using the gear icon under videos, you can tell Hulu to “Auto-select the best quality for my bandwidth (recommended).” Online Video Games • Recommended: a low ping (less than 100ms) For playing video games online, download and upload speeds don’t matter as much as ping, which measures how responsive your connection is. The lower ping to servers and other players, the lower the “lag” will be in your game. To lower ping, you can take steps such as connecting your computer to the router using Ethernet instead of Wi-Fi, and not downloading/uploading files while playing games. • Spotify streaming music Recommended: 0.25 mbps
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20 Horizon|2013 Spring
Spring 2013 |Horizon 21
BY MICHELLE NEDVED
AirPipe
A
irPipe began in the Spokane Valley in 2000. They now
have an office in Sandpoint and offer Internet, television
866-892-8351 www.airpipe.com Headquarters: Spokane Valley Employees: About 17 Startup year: 2000 Services offered: Internet, TV, Phone
and VOIP telephone services in Newport and parts of Priest
For residential customers in the Newport and Priest River areas, AirPipe offers wireless broadband Internet using the Canopy system. Bill Geibel Jr., owner and director of engineering for AirPipe, said anyone with line-of-sight to Hoodoo Mountain can pick up the signal. Customers attach both a dish and antennae to their homes, depending on how far they live from Hoodoo Mountain, according to Sales and Marketing Director Scott Ballew. Customers closer to the mountain may not need the
River.
AirPipe leases fiber line from Concept Cable in Priest River, providing fiber optic Internet connections to the West Bonner County School District, including Priest River Lamanna High School, Priest River Junior High and Priest River Elementary, and Idaho Hill Elementary in Oldtown and Priest Lake Elementary at the lake. AirPipe is also the service provider for the West Bonner Library District, which operates libraries in both Priest River and Blanchard.
antennae to pick up the signal wirelessly. AirPipe offers six Internet service packages, ranging from the starter package at $49.95 per month to the Platinum Package of $129.95 a month. Custom packages are also available. All customers have an average burstable download speed of 5Mbps and upload speeds of 2.5 Mbps. That is the maximum amount
of bandwidth available at any given time, but is not sustainable. The different package prices account for varying buffer sizes that allow the download of large files. For example, the starter package includes a 10Mb file buffer, which means if there’s enough content in the file to fill up 10Mb, the buffer kicks in and gives the customer that sustainable bandwidth until the file is downloaded. The Gold Package, which is $79.95, includes a 25Mb buffer. To explain it in layman’s terms, AirPipe gives explanations of what each package would be best used for. The starter package is recommended for basic web browsing, online banking and email. On the other end, the platinum package works best for small office and home offices with multiple computers and users. It’s capable of supporting two simultaneous standard definition video streams. AirPipe offers bundles with VOIP for a flat $25 a month. This includes all local and long distance calling in North America. They also offer Dish Network television. Depending on the Dish package a customer chooses, they received $10 off their Internet package per month. Installation costs are $199 for residential customers and $399 for commercial.
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Courtesy photo|AirPipe
This map shows AirPipe’s coverage area. The blue, red and yellow dots indicated their towers. Visit their website and click on the towers to view individual coverage areas.
Spring 2013 |Horizon 23
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Moose Bytes 866-969-8351 • www.moosebytes.net Headquarters: Spokane Valley Employees: Three Startup year: 2006 Services offered: Internet
M
oose Bytes owned by Air-
Pipe, and is a sister company, covering Priest Lake, including Coolin, Nordman and areas north of Priest River.
RTI
is partially
Customers connect to the Internet in the same way AirPipe customers do, but Moose Bytes does not offer television or telephone services. Plans are in the works for the future. The cost is a bit more for Moose Bytes, $10 more per package than AirPipe. The company began in 2006 and employs three people. Equipment maintenances and tech support is offered through AirPipe.
Washington Pend Oreille Telecom www.rtci.net • 888-636-2840 Headquarters: Glenns Ferry, Idaho Employees: Five employees in Washington Startup year: Took over from GTE in 1995 in north Pend Oreille County Services offered: Internet connections, including dialup and DSL, as well as satellite broadband Internet. They also offer landline and cellular telephone services.
R
TI got its start as a telephone service provider in rural Idaho in 1979. They gradual-
ly grew, acquiring the phone system in North Pend Oreille County (first called Pend Oreille Telephone) from GTE in 1995.
Today they provide Internet connection in
the north part of Pend Oreille County. While they have a handful of dialup customers, most of their people connect to the Internet through RTI’s DSL service, over copper telephone lines. They have a variety of pricing options available, starting at $39.95 a month for a basic DSL for 768 Kbps and download 256Kbps upload speeds to premium DLS for $89.95 a month for 10 Mbps download and 768 Kbps upload speed. All options are with a two-year contract. The modem costs $95 and there is an $185 installation fee. Their standard residential Internet package costs $69.95 a month. The standard DSL has download speeds of 6 Mbps and upload speeds of 758kbps. RTI provides broadband wireless satellite through their Excede service, although no new customers are being accepted while the satellite system is being upgraded. RTI has a fiber optic backbone and they are looking into putting more fiber into the ground, as there is a demand for fiber to the cell phone towers. They receive some federal grant funds intended to keep rural area communication networks upgraded.
Spring 2013 |Horizon 25
F
BY DON GRONNING
rontier Communication
Frontier www.frontier.com 800-921-8101 Headquarters: Stamford, Conn. Employees: 14,700 employees in 27 states Startup year: 1935 Services offered: ADSL 2+ broadband Internet service and support, satellite video through a partnership with DISH, Frontier satellite broadband, telephone service southern Pend Oreille County and Bonner County
provides broadband Internet service over
telephone lines and fiber using a relatively new enhanced form
Mbps and upload speeds of 3 Mbps. Other areas will see 12 Mbps download speeds and 2 Mbps upload speeds. The Diamond Lake and Deer Valley Road areas will get the fastest speeds, according to Chris Blayn, technical supervisor working in Frontier’s Sandpoint office. Frontier’s standard Internet package will offer 6 Mbps download and
er connects to the fiber loop through the telephone line. “It was originally built mid-1980s,” Blayn said. They have also been expanding it to the Diamond Lake area and are planning more areas. Frontier provides broadband satellite Internet connections through Hughes Net, their business partner. Frontier buys wholesale time and
1 Mbps upload speeds for $29.95 per month. That is a special and requires a three-year contract. It will cost $49.95 for a full install, he said. Some who qualify to selfinstall will be able to do so for free. There are a variety of other bundling opportunities and specials. Consumers can bundle telephone, Internet and television at a variety of prices. Frontier will provide the modem at no cost. Frontier has had a fiber loop as part of their system, although the custom-
resells it, primarily in the north part of Pend Oreille County. Frontier also partners with DISH to provide television. Television starts at $49.99 a month, although there are promotional specials that bring the cost down to $24.99 per month. Since there is another telephone company in North Pend Oreille County they don’t have access to fiber or copper there. Frontier also provides landline telephone service for south Pend Oreille County using the Verizon system they purchased.
of Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line, known as ADSL+2 and VDSL.
They have provided the original form of DSL to customers using equipment in their Newport office for many years. This new version along with a fiber backbone they built to Diamond Lake, Deer Valley and in part of Bonner County in Idaho, including Priest River, Blanchard and Stoneridge, as well as Spirit Lake in Kootenai County allows them to expand this high speed network. It does have some limitations if the copper wires and connections aren’t in good shape. The new DSL basically takes the equipment to neighborhoods and allows them to use their existing telephone copper lines within 15,000 feet. Then it is connected to the fiber backbone. Depending on where you live and the quality of the connection, a customer may get download speeds of 20
HEALING CLOSE TO HOME
By Geoff Jones, M.D.
Let’s face it…the older we get, the more likely we are to require surgery. And as surgical procedures become more complicated, so does the healing process that follows. Although rural hospitals may not offer the more complex surgical services of an urban facility, many of them do offer post-surgical rehabilitation in an extended care or swing bed unit. Families are often unaware that their loved ones can go through this often lengthy rehabilitation period close to home, rather than in the large, urban rehabilitation centers that may be 60 or more miles away. Although the types of surgeries requiring inpatient rehabilitation vary, hip and knee replacement surgeries are
the twomost common; many traumatic injuries, such as hip fractures and tibiafibula fractures also require inpatient rehabilitation. Occasionally, people need inpatient rehab after more traditional surgeries, especially if they are debilitated going in (elderly person, someone living alone, someone with a bowel obstruction). Sometimes people are just not able to go home without a week or two of strengthening following surgery.
People who have suffered a stroke also need rehabilitation prior to returning home. In fact, many patients with other medical problems (i.e. pneumonia, etc) may not be strong enough to return home following the initial hospitalization, so they can go into a swing bed for more short-term strengthening instead of into a traditional nursing home facility. Depending on the type of surgery or medical illness, in-patient rehabilitation can be a few days or a few weeks. A
rural hospital is often better able to coordinate care and see to the patient’s individual needs better than a big city facility. There are very few instances where patients would actually be better off in a larger facility away from home (maybe for recovery involving spinal cord injuries or large burns). Other than that, rural facilities like Newport Hospital and Health Services (Newport, WA) have everything that St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Center or urban nursing homes in Spokane can offer.
The personal benefits to patients who choose to heal close to home start with consistent physician presence (either their own doctor for pre-established patients or the same doctor for their entire stay). This makes family visits much easier and allows patients to work with the same therapist inpatient as they
will for future outpatient therapy. The most common types of therapy needed following surgeries are physical therapy and occupational therapy. However, stroke patients or those patients with a feeding tube often require speech therapy. Additional routine services include working with a dietician and a social worker. Patients who are scheduling surgeries should talk to their doctor about rehabilitation close to home rather than blindly following big hospital referral protocol. It will ease the transition and emotional toil that post-surgical rehabilitation can cause on the entire family. Dr. Geoff Jones graduated from University of Washington School of Medicine in 1996, completed his residency at Family Medicine Spokane in 1999, and has practiced in Newport (Washington) since 2003. He is a Clinical Instructor for the University of Washington School of Medicine Department of Family Medicine, and is on faculty for Family Medicine Spokane.
NEWPORT HOSPITAL & HEALTH SERVICES
DELIVERING EXCELLENCE IN HEALTHCARE...A TRADITION OF QUALITY AND COMMITMENT 714 W. Pine St., Newport, WA • (509) 447-2441 • www.phd1.org
26 Horizon|2013 Spring
Horizon photo|Don Gronning
Jim Murray, central office technician, is shown with some of the fiber optic cable that is housed in the Frontier Communications Central Office in Newport.
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AT&T Mobility 1-800-333-6651 www.att.com Headquarters: Atlanta, Ga. Employees: 70,000 Startup year: 2000 Services offered: cell phone service and 4G Internet
BY JANELLE ATYEO
T
he 4G wireless communication network is usually used for cell
phones and their data plans.
Wi-Fi devices. Speeds are around 6 Mbps downstream and 2 Mbps up on a 4G LTE network. The 4G LTE (for long-term evolution) is the fourth generation network for high-speed data for mobile phones. The MiFi Liberate costs $49.99 with a two-year service contract. A similar device is the AT&T Unite. It costs a dollar with the new contract. That’s a
But cell phone companies are also able to provide broadband connections for various devices.
AT&T has limited coverage in the Pend Oreille River Valley right now, but where its network reaches, so does broadband service. AT&T offers several devices that can serve as a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot. They connect to AT&T’s 4G network and transmit a signal out to your Wi-Fi enabled devices such as laptops and iPads. One is the MiFi Liberate, a batterypowered device that will fit in the palm of your hand, weighing in at just more than 4 ounces. It creates a mobile hotspot that connects up to 10
one-time fee. To get your connection, you’ll pay for a monthly data plan. The monthly data plans start at $40 for 1 GB, up to $70 for 4 GB, plus another $20 per month to use the device. The same sort of plans are available for a tablet, such as an iPad, that is capable of hooking up to AT&T’s network. AT&T also offers a USBConnect at
the cost of $30. USB modems plug into your laptop or desktop computer and provide it with Internet access. With the MiFi Liberate mobile hotspot, there’s a one-time activation fee of $36. All totaled, getting into a plan with the mobile hotspot will cost you $50 for the device, $50 for the data plan, and $36 for activation fee: about $136, then around $50 per month thereafter. AT&T offers satellite Internet provided through ViaSat, but it is not available in the Newport area. AT&T Mobility is a subsidiary of AT&T Inc., a telecommunications company that has roots back to the original Bell Telephone Co. The mobile portion of AT&T was formally Cingular Wireless. In 2010, AT&T put up a 4G tower in downtown Newport. Its 4G service area in Pend Oreille County generally follows Highway 2. There is also a tower in the Metaline Falls area.
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Courtesy image|AT&T
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AT&T’s MiFi Liberate is a device that creates your own Wi-Fi hotspot. You can use AT&T’s 4G network to provide Internet access for Wi-Fi enabled devices such as laptops and tablets. You can change hotspot settings using the MiFi’s touch screen.
Courtesy image|AT&T
AT&T’s data coverage shows 4G coverage in the Newport/Oldtown area and a swath that follows Highway 2.
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Orbitcom 866-834-7837 • www.orbitcom.biz Headquarter: Sioux Falls, S.D. Employees: 65 Startup year: 2001 Services offered: Internet connections, from dialup to broadband, private line services, colocation of servers and battery backup for firms that want to keep their equipment off-site. They also have landline telephone lines in the Spokane market.
Internet Xpress 509-685-0403 • plix.com Headquarters: Colville Employees: 8 Startup year: 1995 Services offered: Fiber connections for large businesses BY JANELLE ATYEO
T
hough they’re based in Colville, Internet Xpress currently serves a few big fiber customers locally, including Pend Oreille County’s government buildings and Vaagen
BY DON GRONNING
O
rbitcom offers a variety of Internet, phone and private line services over copper and fiber lines. They deal mainly with business customers, including financial
institutions and the hospital, as well as small businesses.
Like most Internet service providers, they offer a variety of plans, including dial-up connections and DSL over telephone lines, as well as broadband service and private service lines. Their monthly prices range from $9.95 for unlimited dialup to more than $1,000 for special broadband fiber connections. Derrick Green, director of data services, says they are a Cisco powered network and offer symmetrical upload and download of up to 10 gig each direction for their top end services. The 10 gig package costs several thousand dollars a month. Their standard DSL Internet has download speeds of up to 10Mbps for $79 a month. They also offer private line services over fiber, which are outside the Internet. These private line services can connect one place to another and are used to transfer files securely and quickly. The private line services are often used by financial and medical firms. Orbitcom has three advanced data centers located in Spokane, Walla Walla and Coeur d’Alene for co-location of hardware. Green says that the battery backup, 24-hour access, uninterrupted power supply and fire suppression at these centers give companies a secure option for locating hardware off site. Orbitcom has been using PUD fiber for more than 10 years. That predates when the PUD got the fiber-to-the-home grant. While headquartered in Sioux Falls, they do have 25 employees in their Spokane office.
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Vice president and operations manager Dave Smith said they’re on the PUD’s list of fiber providers, but they so far don’t plan to offer residential service. That would require them to have a local presence with a tech based here, which they don’t have right now. He said residential service may be an option down the road, but he’s waiting to see how things pan out once the fiber system is up and running. Internet Xpress has offered wireless service in the Colville area for more than nine years. Their service area stretches into Deer Park, but is not available in Pend Oreille County. They also offer WildBlue and HughsNet satellite Internet, and in some areas, DSL.
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• If my mom sends me some photos, I might download a couple of those each day. That’s 300 MB per month. • I use my VoIP phone to chat, maybe about an hour a day. That’s 1.3 GB. • I like to chat with my long distance relatives via Skype. We talk for about half an hour each week. That’s 650 MB. • I love playing those online games. But I try to limit myself to an hour a day. That’s 150 MB for the month. According to Verizon’s data usage calculator, that would total of about 8 GB per month, which keeps you
with your plan limits. That will add up though, if you’ve got multiple users logging on. Overage charges apply. If you use more than your 10 GB, you’ll be charged $10 for each additional gig you use. Verizon Communications began providing cellular service in 2000. The company formed out of a merger between Bell Atlantic and GTE Wireless. Verizon has cell towers that stretch its signal through the Pend Oreille River Valley. One is going up in the Metaline Falls area. Blanchard recently got a Verizon tower, and there are towers scattered along Highway 2.
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ViaSat
BY JANELLE ATYEO
1-866-798-4787 www.viasat.com Headquarters: Carlsbad, Calif. Employees: 2,550 Startup year: 1986 Services offered: Exede and WildBlue satellite Internet
F
ormerly WildBlue Communications, ViaSat is a satellite
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ViaSat offers service via resellers including DirecTV, DISH Network, AT&T and the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative, which is locally RTI Telecom or Pend Oreille Telephone Co. Call 1-888-3667821 for local service through POTC. In 2012, ViaSat launched Exede, a faster high-capacity satellite system. Speeds are advertised at 12 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up. Satellite providers meter their
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customer’s data usage, much like cell phone customers are used to. In the low-use late night hours, customers can take advantage of unmetered usage, but that’s only between midnight and 5 a.m. Exede Internet plans start at 10 GB per month for $50, then go up to 15 GB for $80 and 25 GB for $130. You can bundle your Internet service with DirecTV or other services. Packages with DirecTV start at $40 per month for 10 GB of data. Other bundle options are $70 for 15 GB and $120 for 25 GB. That’s on top of what you’ll pay for
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your TV bill. DirecTV packages start at $30 per month for the first 12 months, which gets you more than 140 channels. That price requires a twoyear contract. TV packages go up to $90 per month for 285 channels. WildBlue started in 1999 in Denver. The investors saw there was a need for satellite Internet service in the same way companies had seen an opportunity for satellite TV back in the 1980s, the Exede website recounts. The first WildBlue satellite launched in 2004 and a year later began providing service to rural America where there was no access to broadband Internet. WildBlue partnered with ViaSat early on, then in 2009 became part of the company.
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Underground Fiber-To-The-Home Connection
Courtesy graphic| Pend Oreille PUD
This graphic shows how the PUD’s fiber line will connect to homes in Pend Oreille County.
Horizon photo|Don Gronning
Contractors for the PUD work on the final installation of fiber optic lines for the Newport area fiber optic project. The fiber from throughout the area ends up underground at this site.
34 Horizon|2013 Spring
box needed for each television. Internet only connections can be as simple as connecting a wireless modem to the PUD box. Charges will vary for ISP wiring and installation work.
Years in the making
The makings of the Pend Oreille Public Utility District’s fiber system has had years of planning behind it. A federal stimulus grant put those plans to work when the PUD jumped in line with its shovel-ready project and secured a $27 million grant. For two years, contract crews have been stringing fiber along every power line south of Usk and burying cables. While Onley anticipates the PUD will be done with the build out months before the new September deadline, it may take through the fall to do the final close out of the grant. “I think the community has been very generous with their cooperation,” Onley said. They’ve gotten lots of positive feedback, he said. The federal grant couldn’t cover the north part of Pend Oreille County. That’s Pend Oreille Telephone Company’s service area, and the company already had a federal grant at work there, stringing fiber. You could say it’s not in the government’s best interest to fund two competing projects. But through agreements with NOANet, a network system owned by a group of PUD’s including Pend Oreille PUD, they have a relatively extensive backbone system in the north county area. The PUD also had its own fiber backbone running to the Canadian border. Onley said this will allow them to offer connections to customers if they want to pay for part of the expenses of the hubs and final firing to the building. The PUD will pay $1,500 of the cost per household. But groups of homes could get together and fund the work to gain the connection. Onley points out that the benefit of the district’s fiber system stretches beyond southern Pend Oreille County. In Priest River, Concept Cable serves the industrial park by hooking back to the PUD’s fiber. The PUD fiber goes to the Riverside School District in Chattaroy, and they recently helped a cellular provider put up at tower in Republic that’s linked to fiber. The cell towers in Pend Oreille County hook to the fiber backbone. NoaNet, Northwest Open Access Network, was another stimulus-funded build out which is working towards completion this summer as well. The Pend Oreille PUD joined about 10 years ago, shortly after the district had built its backbone along its new north-south transmission line. The NoaNet system was first intended to allow the districts to communicate amongst each other about power supply issues. Eventually they included the Bonneville Power
Administration fiber system. Construction of the NoaNet stimulus project is starting in Pend Oreille County. The power poles are ready for the infrastructure to be added, and once it’s done, the tri-county area will have a redundant loop from Tiger to Tonasket to Grand Coulee to Tiger. The fiber will then connect into the Pend Oreille PUD’s fiber line that now connects only to a main NoaNet terminal in Spokane. Should that line go down in the future, all communications could be rerouted over the new line over Tiger pass and to a Seattle hub. NoaNet received two federal American Reinvestment and Recovery Act grants totaling $140 million. The new NoaNet broadband infrastructure will create a seamless network reaching more than 170 communities and 2,000 schools, hospitals, emergency responders, libraries, colleges and universities.
What’s behind the cost
The entire fiber build out budget is $34 million. The stimulus grant covers 80 percent of the project cost. The PUD must put in some matching funds. It will pay out $3.9 million in cash. Another $2 million or so worth of “in kind” assets will also go toward the district’s share. The PUD is also able to count the depreciation of the fiber it already owns against its share of the funds. The district borrowed $4.25 million to cover the rest. That was essentially
funded by the district’s electric system for services the fiber will provide in the future, such as the capability for automatic meter reading. The PUD commissioners went through many discussions before setting a price for the district’s fiber service. The PUD will charge each ISP for residential service to homes and small businesses. The PUD board set them at $50 per month with a $35 introductory rate good through Dec. 31, 2014. Each ISP will pay the household or business cost to the PUD and pass it on to the customer. If there are more than one ISP providing a service to a home, they will each pay the PUD fee, Olney said. The PUD will use the funds to main-
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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7
tain the system and upgrade it in the future. Rates were also set by the PUD board with the intent to pay back the money it borrowed for the project within 10 years. The working premise is that 660 households will sign up in the first year and 1,109 the next year. The PUD projects about 200 additional customers a year until 2,015 are signed up by 2019. In 2020, the PUD’s wholesale rate would increase to $60 a month for standard service. The fiber line will pass about 5,000 homes and businesses between Usk and the Spokane County line. The grant requires the PUD connect at least 938 homes.
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Courtesy map|Pend Oreille PUD
The colors on this aerial map of south Pend Oreille County have blossomed during the past two years as the Pend Oreille Public Utility Districts’s fiber to every home and business was built. The colors represent Internet hubs or groups that are connected to the PUD fiber network backbone. Those backbone lines and new redundant lines are also color coded on this map. Two years ago much of this map would have been colorless. 36 Horizon|2013 Spring
Spring 2013|Horizon 37
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