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Users can get high speed now By DAVID PRESZLER Heavy users don't have to wait for Falcon Cable to roll out cable modems to get high-speed Internet connections. Falcon says it is already able to offer much faster direct fiber connections to those users needing to connect their own file servers to the Internet, and is running such a network for Asante Health System. The direct links can transmit data at speeds from 10 to 100 megabits per second. The current standard for business connections is the phone-based T-1, which can move 1.54 megabits per second. Ron Hren, Falcon's divisional vice president, says the current fiber system could support hundreds of heavy users at the 10-100 megabit speed. Because the heavy users have a direct connection, they don't clog the network for other users. "The heavy business user will be separate from the home-office user, which will keep our network very, very fast," says Hren. The Asante network, which has been in the testing stage for several months, links nine medical centers that Asante runs, including Rogue Valley Medical Center in Medford, both campuses of Three Rivers Hospital in Grants Pass and smaller facilities in Jacksonville, Grants Pass and Medford. It will include Ashland Community Hospital once Falcon resolves a dispute with city officials, Hren said. Most of Asante's connections are at 100 megabits per second -- meaning that large files, such as X-rays, that would have taken minutes to transmit, can move almost instantaneously. Having that kind of bandwidth available will make the valley more attractive to large companies, according to Bruce Laird of the Oregon Economic Development Department. "It's huge," said Laird. "The data streams are so fast. "We become terribly viable for a whole stream of high-tech businesses." Hren said Falcon is dedicated to encouraging development and plans to have bandwidth available in some places even before companies have committed to locate there. For example, it plans to run high-capacity fiber-optic lines to the Medford Industrial Park near White City. "We are not going to wait for a customer to get our fiber to them," he said. "Our intent is to have it waiting at the curbside." Today's Business Index Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA