Saratoga gets 'competitive edge'

Gigabit broadband expanding through Saratoga exceeds speeds available in much larger Wyoming cities

“This is huge for Saratoga. This is the kind of bandwidth that larger communities dream about. This is going to far exceed what we find in Casper or Cheyenne,” Merrit Engebretsen, account executive for Union Telephone, summed up Wednesday evening’s broadband presentation by Union telephone.

Engebretsen added, “I live in Casper and right now I get about 40 megs—which I feel that is pretty good. Here we are talking about being able to offer a gigabit speed to a resident. Then if we need to get into a real business offering like what Rocky (Fiedor, of Saratoga Auto Parts) was talking about, where it’s dedicated bandwidth, we have that ability as well. So that opens up the opportunity to some of the really big high-tech companies—there’s no reason for them not to go to look at Saratoga.”

The evening began at 5:30 p.m. in the Great Hall of the Platte Valley Community Center with Brian Woody, chief customer relations officer for Union Wireless, explaining the ongoing “Saratoga build.”

The about eighteen audience members, including County Commissioner Sue Jones, Saratoga Mayor Ed Glode, Saratoga Councilman Will Faust, Saratoga council candidate and planning commission chairman Jon Nelson, Saratoga Platte Valley Chamber of Commerce Director Stacy Crimmins, local business owner Rocky Fiedor, Platte Valley Community Center Director Joe Elder and a representative from Brush Creek who expressed a desire not to be identified, listened as Woody presented slides which he explained to depict the thrust of the Saratoga build.

Woody began the evening by thanking Crimmins and Jones then explained Union was working on a, “fiber to the premises campaign and we’re starting here in Saratoga.”

Woody continued, “We put fiber in a few years ago to Saratoga that was our backbone—kinda connected a whole lot of communities here together but really didn’t get out to end users a whole lot. That’s really where we are—getting it out to these homes, businesses and places like that.”

“We now have a 100 gig ring that is highly redundant goes through Wyoming and around actually, “ Woody said, pointing out Union currently had three routes in and out of Carbon county with additional routes planned.

Around Carbon County

Woody then showed a slide depicting current fiber optic lines going to Elk Mountain, Encampment, Riverside, Hanna, Saratoga and Rawlins. The slide also stated that fiber backhaul for cell sites with planned LTE on all Carbon County sites is slated for completion by the end of 2018.

As far as gigabit access to Saratoga outliers like Encampment, Riverside, Hanna, and Elk Mountain, there is not yet a plan for builds to those towns. Engebretsen did say that those needing high speed access could call for an estimate for a dedicated circuit.

Woody did add in a later phone conversation that all the schools in the Carbon County No. 2 School District (CCSD2) were currently set up with the gigabit service. This will aid with the schools’ new online testing procedures.

Woody added that builds in the Saratoga outliers will begin after the Saratoga build is complete.

Timeline a work

in progress

Though the community center, CCSD No.2, Brush Creek and a number of other government and commercial entities have had high speed connections completed, Woody said Union had not worked out a timeline for completion of the Saratoga Build. Woody did say that the company had started ordering material and that they expect to begin the work on the main feeders throughout town within the next month to month-and-a-half. Woody added that DSLAMs (Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexers—devices which connect multiple digital subscriber line (DSL) interfaces to a high-speed digital communications channel using multiplexing) will be added as they expand ducts throughout Saratoga which will aid even those without the new high speed access.

Variable upload and downloads

During a speed test at the newly connected community center, Woody demonstrated a 598.68 megabits per second (Mbps) download speed and a 366.94 Mbps upload speed.

Answering an audience question from Faust about setting upload and download rates, Woody said that if a customer had the 100 Gigabit per second plan that customer could set their upload and download rates according to their usage using an example of a web host who might want their upload speed to be greater than their download speed.

Federally-funded?

When asked if federal funds were used to bring fiber optic to Saratoga and if that drove the mandate to supply broadband service locally, Woody stated that federal funds were not used to bring fiber optic to town. He added that federal funds have been used to help in bringing wireless service to rural areas in Wyoming.

Ability to Expand

Fiedor asked if the “pipes” to the edge of the current town limits of Saratoga would be big enough to support future growth. Woody answered that, “Yes, that was some of our design criteria to make it, as much as possible, future proof.” Woody went on to describe the current plan of having 144-strand fiber optics run through town and added that each strand could carry up to 88 10-gigabit links with future expansion possible.

Transition Risk

Faust asked what the risk was of service outage during the transition. Woody replied there was no risk, saying that the old system would remain in place until the client was satisfied the new service was up and running well. When the client was happy with the new service the old one would simply be disconnected. Woody continued that the old copper would remain in place and would still have some use even if it was just supplying DC power to the DSLAMs.

WiFi Phone System

The Brush Creek representative asked if WiFi phone service expansion was in the plans. Woody explained that Union was still working on that system but that that had turned out to be a bigger challenge than anticipated. He further explained that conflicts with two different switch vendors had caused a conflict in which those switches did not communicate with each other. That conflict had caused a situation that has delayed a project he said should have been long completed. Woody hoped Union would be done with the project in 2019 but could not promise that time frame.

Brush Creek Residences

When the Brush Creek representative asked about getting broadband to the 25 residences there, Woody explained that the terrain had played a part in delays getting connections there saying, “Actually getting out to Brush Creek we hit a nice beautiful patch of about 50 yards of counter-grade granite. That shut us down for a little bit of time while we got a new ripper for our D7 (Caterpillar bulldozer) because it just broke it.”

Woody did estimate completion on that for the second quarter of 2019.

Dedication

Fiedor expressed his business’ critical need for a dedicated line saying “When the school kids get out of school and get on the internet or when we have a big event downtown it will have no effect on my business.” Though Fiedor has arranged for a dedicated line at his Saratoga Auto Parts store in downtown Saratoga, Woody would like to remind possible customers that a rate for dedicated line services is variable and Union is still determining the best possible rate.

Streaming speeds

When asked what would be a good, non-interruptable download speeds were for streaming television services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and the like, Woody replied that a meg-and-a-half is good for standard definition, high definition takes about five megs and 4K definition requires 20 megs. Those numbers are for a single screen. If a customer is using multiple screens each screen will take that amount of bandwidth.

Pricing

For voice and internet service at 1Gbps (both up- and download speed) the cost will be $150/month. For 100Mbps upload and 20Mbps download the price is $90/month. For 75/10 speeds the price is $80. for 50/5 the cost is $70. 25/3 is $60, 10/1 is $55 and less than 10Mbps download and 1Mbps upload is $45-$50/month.

Competitive Edge

When Faust asked if high speed connectivity would give Saratoga a competitive advantage over say a Laramie, several “yesses” were heard from audience members including Union employees present. Woody said,”I think you do. One, you have this beautiful Valley to live in. With access of high speed broadband I think it just could open the flood gates to economic development in the Platte Valley.”

Estimates

Anyone who would like an estimate to connect to the gigabit system can call Merritt Engebretsen at 866-686-3231 or send a message to the Union wireless website.

 

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