As of 2016, Pittsburg will have six unique Internet providers, and each will be "multiply redundant and geographically redundant at the Tier 1 level."
Jay Byers, assistant manager for the city of Pittsburg, joined representatives from two providers — Zach Adams, of Craw-Kan Telephone Cooperative based in Girard, and Nick Saparito, of Optic Communications based in Columbus — in detailing the addition, the timeline and the benefits.
They said crews have been working in recent weeks to get holes dug and conduit in the ground. The next step is laying the fiber, connecting it to electronics, and building out taps to neighborhoods and drops to homes. The anticipated completion date is November.
The addition is “very significant development for the city,” Byers said.
Geographic redundancy is critical to existing businesses, he noted; in the event a line is cut to one location, businesses still have access through another location. The new systems will have lines to Kansas City, Wichita and possibly Dallas. Such a feature is critical to businesses considering relocating, Byers said.
“Having multiple connections to Tier 1 providers is a big deal,” he said. “It’s really a new era for Pittsburg.”
Craw-Kan and Optic Communications have been players in the telecommunications industry for decades, Byers noted; Optic Communications opened in 1905, and Craw-Kan opened in 1952.
Saparito said his company also has projects underway in Galena, Riverton and Baxter Springs. The company wanted to expand to the enterprise sector in Pittsburg, he said, because the city has a “progressive attitude,” he said.
Adams said Craw-Kan is now in 14 counties in Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma, from south of Louisburg to Coffeyville to Webb City, Missouri, and recently opened a Pittsburg satellite office at Fourth and Rouse streets. In Pittsburg, the new fiber will provide residential service in addition to business connectivity.
He said the drivers of the fiber-optic expansion include increased consumption — 97 percent of homes have mobile phones, and 90 percent of them have three devices online simultaneously — and the demand for video streaming through Netflix, YouTube and other media services.
“We expect it to grow exponentially 56 percent through 2018,” he said. “You need connections that are robust. That’s attractive not just to businesses, but professionals who are seeking to locate here.”
Saparito provided an analogy: A single fiber-optic strand can carry a gigabyte of data. A gigabyte is like a 52-gallon drum through which water could be poured, whereas a megabyte is like a coffee stir stick, he said.
Adams likened the expansion of such systems to the next step for the U.S. after the westward expansion of railroads, then the modernization of transportation by automobiles and airplanes.
“We’re in the information age now, and this is all about moving information,” he said.
Providers
The six providers also include a Regents-run fiber-optic system at the university, Kansas Fiber Network, and Cox and AT&T — the latter two of which have offered area broadband for several years.©2015 The Joplin Globe (Joplin, Mo.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
