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Fast Web access due here soon Photo by Steve Johnson George Stalker takes light intensity readings on the fiber-optic system at Falcon Cable. Falcon and Oregon Internet Ventures plan high-speed connections for Rogue Valley users. 2 companies plan cable-based links within few months By DAVID PRESZLER The days of slow connections are numbered for Rogue Valley Internet users. More affordable high-speed access to the World Wide Web is coming quickly from at least two sources: Falcon Cable and Oregon Internet Ventures (which includes Ashland's InfoStructure, Medford Internet and Grants Pass' Budget Internet). Both companies plan to begin offering cable-based services in the next few months and other companies are discussing the expansion of high-speed phone-based connections over digital subscriber lines (DSLs). The likely result: Dramatic growth in bandwidth -- the size of the pipe through which information can be sent -- that technology advocates have wanted for years. "To get high-speed access in rural Oregon is nothing short of phenomenal," says Charles McHenry of the Southern Oregon Telecommunications and Technology Council. "It's great news that it's on the way." While home users will be able to surf the Web at swifter speeds, Rogue Valley companies doing business over the Internet will get what may be a more important boost in economic development. "This is going to go a long way toward getting us on equal footing with Portland," says McHenry. "It's extremely important to the valley," says Mike Stallcop of Ashland's Project A Software. "We're closing that gap." The fastest connections now offered in the Rogue Valley are 56K or 56,000 bits per second, and few users actually reach that speed. Both Falcon and Oregon Internet Ventures say the service they'll offer dwarfs that, ranging from 100,000 bps to a megabit per second, and that they will guarantee the connection speed. And, driven by what promises to be furious competition, prices for the services begin around $25-$30 a month -- not much more than users now pay for slower access. To realize the high speeds, PC users will need at least a 75-megahertz microprocessor, and a 133 processor is recommended. Macintosh users need at least a 60-megahertz processor; a PowerPC processor is recommended. Users should have at least 16 megabytes of RAM; 32 is recommended. Users also will need a cable modem and an Ethernet card that connects that modem to the computer. Falcon will likely be the first to provide high-speed service to home users. The company, which provides cable television to most of the Rogue Valley, says it will begin testing next month and service will begin on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis shortly thereafter. Falcon says it will offer Internet access by the end of the year that is guaranteed to download at 100K for light subscribers and 1 million bps for heavy users. Upload times will be slower but still impressive, ranging from 50K to 200K. "We're really right at the top technologically," says Ron Hren, vice president of Falcon's Southern Oregon and Northern California division. Cable-based access has been available in metropolitan areas for more than a year, but only about 200,000 of the 70 million cable customers nationwide have access to it, according to Hren. The Rogue Valley is the first market where Falcon, which has a million customers spread across 38 states, will offer Internet access. Hren says the quality of the 1,000-mile fiber network his company already has here made it an ideal starting point. "We've got a state-of-the-art system in place," he says. "We are abundant in fiber." While all Internet access now available for home users here comes over phone lines, Falcon's service will be carried on the same coaxial cable that brings television signals into the home. The cable can carry both simultaneously and will run from the home to a fiber-optic node, linking it to Falcon's fiber network. Hren says about 150 customers will share a node and that most customers are less than a mile from the nearest node -- reducing the distance the information has to travel over coaxial cable. For businesses seeking even higher speeds, Falcon will offer direct fiber links to the network. The service will be available everywhere Falcon's cable television service is offered, including Medford, Ashland, Central Point, Eagle Point, Jacksonville and Grants Pass. Oregon Internet Ventures says its service will begin sometime this spring and work much like WanTV, in a partnership with that wireless cable provider. Marketing director Andy Spliethof says its product, known as PeRKInet, will guarantee speeds of at least 256K and that higher speeds will be possible. The download access will be transmitted wirelessly to antennas atop homes. Coaxial cable will connect the dishes to the modem and the computer. Other companies aren't far behind. Internet CDS, which already offers DSL connections for businesses, says it will soon launch high-speed access for home users, though the company won't release details yet. Wizzards & Ascend will discuss DSL lines Wednesday at the Southern Oregon Telecommunications and Technology Council's monthly meeting. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA