Kentucky Utility to Test Home Internet

Instead of providing wireless Internet to residential customers, Owensboro Municipal Utilities will deliver high-speed Internet to homes by expanding its existing fiber-optic telecommunications network.

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(Tribune News Service) -- Owensboro Municipal Utilities, which has been out of the home Internet delivery business for about eight years, will be back in that business this fall with a pilot program.

But instead of providing wireless Internet to residential customers as it did in the 2000s, OMU will deliver high-speed Internet to homes by expanding its existing fiber-optic telecommunications network.

On Thursday, the OMU governing board unanimously approved a pilot program in the Town and Country neighborhood off Tamarack Road, with an initial investment of $370,000 to cover the cost of purchasing and installing the system. The subdivision, which is next to the OMU Customer Service Center, has more than 607 households and a population of almost 1,500 people living in single-family and multifamily homes and apartments.

Chris Poynter, superintendent of OMU's telecommunications division, who presented the pilot program proposal to the City Utility Commission on Thursday, said Internet via fiber optic network is "the best possible Internet service available in the United States. The technology is so good, you rarely have to go back (to houses for issues)."

OMU General Manager Terry Naulty told the board that the utility wants to expand its fiber optic telecommunications division. Poynter said the goal is for the "Fiber To The Home" business to pay for itself and not rely on subsidies from the electric system.

Poynter told the board that the prices OMU will charge will be highly competitive with other providers of home Internet. For the pilot program starting this fall, the monthly price for up to 50Mbps (megabits per second) will be $44.99. He said that price is only $5 more per month that what competitors charge for 20Mbps. For 100Mbps, the OMU price will be $69.99 a month, and for 1 gigabits per second (1Gbps, or 1,000 megabits per second), the price is $99.99 a month. A one-time installation of $49.99 will be charged. Customers will be asked to enter into a one-year contract.

Poynter said speeds of up to 100Mbps and 1Gpbs are not currently available from other providers.

OMU should know if the pilot project is a success within a year of its launch this fall, Poynter said.

Poynter stressed the fact that OMU's upload and download speeds for home Internet will be equal in speed, while other providers typically can offer fast download speeds, but not nearly as fast upload speeds.

"The reliability of fiber is pretty much unparalleled in the industry for delivery of Internet," Poynter said. "No one can argue that."

The pilot program will test OMU's ability to deliver home Internet in a reliable manner, said Sonya Dixon, OMU spokeswoman. "We want to do it right and make sure we can provide the service," she said.

Poynter said the goal is for the pilot program to succeed in order for home Internet service to be offered to all Owensboro residents.

Town and Country residents may sign up for Internet service by calling OMU at 270-926-3200 and speaking to a customer service representative. The target neighborhood will be heavily marketed for the service, Poynter said.

In 2013 OMU decided not to sell its telecommunications division, opting instead to reinvigorate the unit by first hiring a director to focus of growth and marketing. That decision resulted in the hiring of Poynter.

One of the chief arguments against selling the telecommunications unit was because OMU's high-speed, fiber network-based, broadband Internet service was far too closely incorporated into OMU's own electric system communications and control infrastructure.

OMU replaced its aging microwave communication system with a fiber-optic telecommunications network in 1996, with the goal of better and more reliable communication within the organization. Within three years, 42 public and private organizations connected to the fiber optic network, using it for ultra high-speed Internet connections, point-to-point telephone service and fast, high-capacity data transfer.

©2015 the Messenger-Inquirer (Owensboro, Ky.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC


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