FINOWEN News
Article published Nov 28, 2004
By Warren Johnston, Valley News Business Writer
Upper Valley Getting Up to Speed
Kristen Garfield-Urribarri is spending more time at home in Lyme and less on gasoline than she was earlier this year.
Before August, Garfield was driving to Cambridge, Mass., almost once a week to download the computer software she needed for her job. Now, she makes the trip every five or six weeks and downloads at home.
"It was faster for me to drive to Cambridge than to download the files I needed," said Garfield-Urribarri, who is a cancer registry account manager for IMPAC Medical Systems Inc., a provider of oncology information technology solutions that has an office in Cambridge.
Garfield-Urribarri dumped her satellite Internet provider and signed up for high-speed broadband service with Finowen, a start-up firm that uses a newly developed wireless Ethernet technology to serve rural areas that had only slow or expensive options to get online.
Finowen has found a niche in what is becoming the highly competitive broadband field in the Upper Valley.
Even those who live in more densely populated areas, such as Lebanon, Hanover and Hartford, also are seeing an explosion of available high-speed broadband services.
"I would not necessarily say that we're seeing any evidence of competition as far as price is concerned. What we're finally seeing is services becoming widely available," said Hans-Ch. Brechbuhl, executive director of the Glassmeyer/McNamee Center for Digital Studies at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.
The Upper Valley has not had affordable broadband service available, even in many of the more densely populated areas, until the last two years.
Now, Adelphia has expanded high-speed service not just in Hanover and Lebanon, but also in Hartford and Norwich. Another expansion is planned for Hartland.
And a new firm, Hanover Broadband Network, which promises to offer even faster fiber-optic service, was just approved for a franchise in Hanover and plans to expand in the next few months into Lebanon and Hartford.
In addition, Verizon is expanding its digital subscriber line (DSL) service in the Upper Valley.
All of the services are comparably priced, but some have speed advantages over the others.
"The technology to do this has been around for a number of years," Brechbuhl said, adding that until recently the firms serving the area perhaps didn't consider the Upper Valley a worthwhile market.
For example, Adelphia, which has been awash with financial and ownership problems for the past few years, probably wasn't focusing on increasing its market here, he said. "They were just surviving in their major markets. They didn't have it together enough to focus on us... It took Verizon a while to get DSL here too."
The Upper Valley has had broadband satellite service, which works well for bringing down information, but when users try to send large files back up, it takes a long time.
Cable also has had problems serving customers during peak hours, Brechbuhl said. When a certain number of users get online, the service slows down. It's a problem that Adelphia and Hanover Broadband say has been solved with their new services.
"I think that across the board... companies are realizing how important the Upper Valley area is. We have so many people who make information flow. It's my view that we are finally getting to a point where we should have been three years ago like the rest of the country," Brechbuhl said. "Technology is not driving it. Business is driving it."
The Explosion
During the week ended Nov. 8, an average of about 198.9 million U.S. residents were using the Internet, according to a survey by Nielsen//NetRatings.
By the beginning of this year, 28.2 million broadband lines were connected to homes nationwide, and broadband access by DSL had increased to 9.5 million lines. Broadband cable modem use increased to 16.4 million people last year.
In 2003, there were 39 million Americans, or 38 percent of all Internet users, connected via broadband, an increase of 49.2 percent over the previous years, the survey shows.
Technology that will be available in the next two years also could benefit Upper Valley residents who now live in areas where there are few options. By 2006, broadband connections are expected to be available through power lines.
A new report, The Market For Broadband Over Powerlines, estimates that by 2012, 33 percent of new broadband users and 13 percent of existing users will access high-speed Internet via power lines serving their homes.
The broadband market is expected to explode in the next four years -- more than doubling its current level -- and is predicted to transform the economy, education, health care, research and development, homeland security, the military and the quality of life for seniors and those with disabilities, a report from the U.S. Department of Commerce says.
Although the Commerce Department report doesn't mention entertainment, broadband providers are touting their services for providing video, movies, games and music at a faster speed. They also cite an eventual proliferation of Internet telecommunications (VoIP) in the future of broadband service.
"Economists are already predicting significant macroeconomic benefits from the proliferation of broadband networks," the Commerce report says.
Economists at the Brookings Institution estimate that high-speed broadband access will increase the national gross domestic product by $500 billion annually by 2006, and TeleNomic Research predicts that building a strong, nationwide network will expand U.S. employment by 1.2 million new and permanent jobs. Brookings also believes that by next year, broadband could produce $373 billion in cost savings to businesses.
Broadband availability allows local businesses and small manufacturers to remain competitive, to operate more efficiently and to access more consumers more quickly and thus grow faster, the Commerce report says.
New Local Options
Services being offered in the Upper Valley range in price from around $40 a month to more than $300 a month for business use. Direct reserved lines also are available for higher fees.
Speeds vary with each type of service, but they are generally faster for a higher fee.
Adelphia, which serves Lebanon, Hanover, Hartford, Claremont and Newport, started upgrading its system in December of last year by running fiber-optic cable.
"We now have 1,700 miles of cable up and down the Upper Valley," Adelphia spokeswoman Lisa Birmingham said. "We pass 70,000 homes."
The company also is expanding into Norwich with 18 miles of recently installed fiber optics, and into Hartland, where the company is installing 70 miles, she said.
In addition to making more service available, the company also is taking steps to improve service, said Mike Leone, Adelphia's director of communications.
"We've made significant improvements the last 12 months. We're eliminating the bottlenecks that cause the system to slow down. Traffic is being rerouted so that the pipe doesn't get clogged."
Adelphia also has improved security and offers free software and tools, such as firewalls, he said.
Verizon has expanded its DSL service by adding more switches closer to customers, a spokeswoman said. The company also started offering "VoiceWing" broadband telephone service along with broadband Internet service for $29.95 a month, Verizon said in a recent news release. The service is portable in the 35 states served by Verizon and is accessible from any computer with Internet service.
Hanover Broadband will be offering a full range of services when the system is installed. Construction is expected to begin in January, company president Terrence P. McGarty said.
After the town of Hanover, the company will expand into Lebanon and Hartford, McGarty said.
Finowen uses non-line-of-site technology that is not deterred by trees or leaves on its way to homes and businesses. The backbone of Finowen's technology is an outdoor unit, developed by the California firm Trango Broadband, that has an integrated radio and antenna to provide customers with high-speed access.
The company is targeting rural areas that are not served by fiber optics or DSL, said Tessa Johnson, Finowen's director of marketing who recently started the company with her husband, Alan.
The company has a broadcast unit on Moose Mountain, which has a 360-degree range. Broadband is sent from the 900-megahertz unit to a small receiver placed on the customer's home or business, Tessa Johnson said.
Security is high with the closed system, she said, adding that someone would have to be on the Finowen system to tap in. "You can't just drive by the house."
The company has six employees and 150 customers, mostly in Lyme, Etna, Norwich, Enfield, Canaan and West Lebanon, she said.
Finowen, which is still looking for investors to back the company's expansion, just received a Vermont grant to expand into West Windsor and Reading. It will use Mount Ascutney as the broadcast site to serve those towns, Alan Johnson said.
While presenting the grant this month, Gov. Jim Douglas said the state program was essential to accomplishing the goal of getting Vermont 90 percent wired to broadband by the end of 2007.
"As we move in the knowledge-based economy, broadband access for Vermonters will be critical to our economic vitality," Douglas said.
After three months as a Finowen customer, Garfield-Urribarri is pleased with the service.
"I had no other option," she said. "I could have gotten hard wired, but that would cost over $1,000. Finowen is an affordable option for me, and the service is great. I really like dealing with a small company."