Smithville Partners With Hendricks County Town
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowEllettsville-based Smithville Communications has inked a deal with the town of Danville to provide gigabit fiber-based Internet service. The company will manage the town's existing fiber network and work to expand access to homes and businesses.
March 18, 2015
News Release
Danville, Ind. — Smithville GigaCityTM technology – symmetrical wireless gigabit fiber-based connectivity and Indiana's fastest Internet – will come to Danville as a result of a new partnership forged between Smithville Telecom and the town of Danville, according to Gary Eakin, town manager for the Hendricks County community.
Smithville will manage the town's existing fiber ring, which was previously built at no cost to local taxpayers. Smithville has already commenced engineering studies on how to strategically expand high-speed fiber services to homes and businesses in Danville through a Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) initiative, said Eakin. The Smithville GigaCity technology presently represents Indiana's fastest Internet with true symmetrical gigabit connectivity – with data transmission speeds of 1,000 mbps up and 1,000 mbps down (as opposed to typical cable service of 20 mbps down and 3 mbps up). Smithville GigaCity fiber technology delivers these high speeds through a fiber-connected state-of-the-art secure wireless modem, making for convenient deployment and installation.
“Smithville's proven expertise in providing superior high-speed fiber services will help position Danville as a preferred location for site selectors and relocation professionals, as well as improving quality of place and quality of life here,” said Laura Parker, town planner and assistant town manager.
“Danville's previous strategic investment in fiber infrastructure is forward-looking and will help us rapidly deploy our Smithville GigaCity technology,” said Darby McCarty, CEO of Smithville Communications. (Smithville Telecom is a subsidiary of Smithville Communications.) “Given that Smithville is already in Hendricks County through our Lizton fiber network, this represents a natural extension of our gigabit high-speed capacity,” she continued.
Under terms of the agreement, Smithville has already begun supplying high-speed fiber connectivity to Danville municipal facilities.
“A critical advantage that Smithville brought to the table is the fact that, as before, no tax dollars or TIF bond revenues will be used for this expansion,” said Marcia Lynch, president of the Danville Town Council. “Instead of using tax dollars, Smithville will actually be creating revenue sharing opportunities for the community,” she added.
“The Danville fiber expansion represents a great opportunity to leverage our successful public-private partnership model,” explained John Patten, Smithville COO. “Danville made a smart municipal investment in developing their fiber ring, and now Smithville has the opportunity to reward the town and local taxpayers for that vision by positively building on that infrastructure.”
Patten added that the Smithville fiber deployment is expected to help Danville's economic development strategic positioning and noted research that shows how high-speed fiber accessibility increases home value.
During 2015 Smithville will conduct engineering and economic surveys that will help determine the areas for fiber expansion. Smithville plans to begin construction of fiber links to residential homes beginning in the fourth quarter of the year.
In 2009 Smithville initiated a major $110 million fiber project in greater Bloomington and other areas of Indiana, which is ongoing. Smithville was the first in the state to turn up its entire residential fiber customer to gigabit speed (1,000 mbps), providing a free trial network-wide service in March 2014. The company has committed to integrating wireless Calix GigaCenter technology in its deployments, which serves as the platform for the Smithville GigaCityTM technology service.
Smithville's business and enterprise operations serve major manufacturing, healthcare, government, business, university, and school networks across Indiana.
The Danville fiber ring management and expansion project represents a true “Fiber-to-the-Premise” (FTTP) installation, with no traditional copper-based or coaxial cable planned.
Fiber-optics networking with gigabit capacity is quickly becoming a necessary element of civic infrastructure. Advancements in healthcare leverage fiber capacity for critical image transmission and telemedicine. Growing businesses can rely on its dependable connectivity to “future-proof” their operations. Consumers benefit from gigabit-based “smart home” technology, as well as lightning-fast downloads of high-definition movies, streaming video (such as Netflix and Amazon Prime), and a host of other services.
Fiber offers a platform of exponential speed and can carry enormous amounts of data. The transition to a purely fiber platform means increasing download speeds from a few megabits per second (Mbps) to 1,000 Mbps. With this new capacity large files can be downloaded much faster. For example, with gigabit connectivity, a full two-hour HD movie can be downloaded in about 30-50 seconds regardless of the number of devices connected, compared with much longer periods of time at lower bandwidth speeds.
Cloud-based computer applications that fully leverage the power of gigabit connectivity are presently in development. They include numerous quality of life and business productivity applications that will positively impact, even transform, areas of healthcare, entertainment and commercial operations.
About Smithville Communications and Smithville Telecom – Nationally recognized as a Top 100 Broadband Company, privately owned Smithville Communications is Indiana's largest independent telecom company with more than 140 employees. With an earned reputation as a communications technology innovator, Smithville is presently deploying Fiber-to-the-Premise (FTTP) and other enhanced fiber services to its business and residential customers. These services, which range up to 10 Gbps for enterprise operations, provide a platform for the fastest connectivity available in Indiana to business, institutions and consumers. Its subsidiary Smithville Telecom develops the Smithville GigaCityTM technology platform and provides fiber-based connectivity, data consulting, network management and managed services for businesses, university campuses, biotechnology companies, healthcare providers, government offices, residential centers, communities, and other entities, including the city of Jasper (Indiana). Smithville also manages a legacy copper communication network in rural south central Indiana, and began a system-wide effort to upgrade rural capacity with a fiber-to-the-cabinet initiative in 2014. The company currently serves about 23,000 businesses and residences in southern and central Indiana. For more information, please visit www.smithville.com.
Source: Smithville Communications