The Future of the Spanish Fork Community Network

SFCN continues to expand their Fiber to the Home and Business network. The system is bringing additional speeds and reliability to the customers of SFCN. Unlike almost any other network, SFCN is keeping the Internet data completely separate from cable television channels which consume the bandwidth delivered in a traditional FTTH system. By continuing to leave the CATV service on coax, all of the bandwidth offered by FTTH can be used for Internet speed and throughput.

The active ethernet system being installed offers the most robust, reliable and upgradeable system possible. Other FTTH networks use shared fibers and daisy chained homes while using bandwidth for cable TV services. Those TV services can consume large amounts of the available bandwidth and the daisy chained homes are dependent on each other for bandwidth and to even stay connected to the network. The active ethernet system runs a fully separate fiber to each home and back to the node. Customers performance and reliability isn't dependent on their neighbors.

SFCN is building the system using only the revenue from the existing hybrid fiber coax system. Unlike almost all other FTTH installations, we are building the system without getting new bond money. Compare that to the Utopia network which has repeatedly gone back for more and more money for their FTTH installation.

SFCN is offering free installation and greatly increased speeds without a price increase. SFCN is upgrading all PLUS and Premium tier Internet customers to the FTTH network at no cost to the customer. Existing customers are having fiber run into their home to give them access to the most technically advanced network possible. Prices for the PLUS and Premium tiers of service are not increasing. The City council has agreed that SFCN can upgrade the system to FTTH without increasing the price of the existing tiers. While prices will stay the same, speeds of the PLUS and Premium tiers have greatly increased! The FTTH PLUS tier has 100 mbps downstream and 100 mbps upstream for only $38 or $45 (without CATV service) per month. The Premium tier has been upgraded to a full 1 gigabit per second downstream and 1 gigabit per second upstream for the same $68 or $75 per month.

This new Fiber to the Home network is the next step in ensuring the success of the Spanish Fork Community Network for decades to come. Fiber has been proven the fastest, most reliable method of delivering data and the active ethernet system being installed is state-of-the-art technology. As network requirements increase, the active ethernet system can easily be upgraded to 10 gigabit per second or even 100 gigabit per second. The upgrades can be scaled as customers demand faster speeds without affecting existing speed tiers. As new technology becomes available, the Spanish Fork Community Network will continue to provide the most technically advanced data network possible.

John Bowcut
Director of Information Systems
Spanish Fork City