Blistering digits
U.S. West offers high-speed ATM data connections
The new service will provide access to information technology on par
with big-city competitors
By TRAVIS PURSER
Express Staff Writer
Members of the Blaine County government and business community with a
stake in high-tech communications will meet in Hailey this month to brainstorm ideas for
some remarkable new equipment U.S. West plans to install.
In the coming months, the phone company will provide the Wood River Valley
with a new digital voice switch, along with a state-of-the-art communications service
capable of moving mass quantities of electronic information so fast and efficiently that
Blaine County businesses, it seems, will take a couple of years to catch up
technologically before they can take full advantage of the service.
The new service will provide access to information technology on par with
big-city competitors. Some believe that will encourage more high-tech companies to move
into the area and spark major innovations in existing businesses and organizations.
Called asynchronous transfer mode cell relay service (ATM service), the
new technology is one of the benefits that comes with the replacement of decades-old
analog telephone equipment designed long before the Internet existed.
With that analog equipment, local businesses wanting an Internet
connection frequently pay for some or all of a so-called T1 connection, which provides a
maximum connection speed of 1.5 megabytes per second—about 50 times the speed most
home computer users get with a modem. A single ATM circuit will offer businesses the
equivalent of 24 T1 connections.
On its Web site, U.S. West posts a long list of applications for its
blisteringly fast ATM service, including Web-based marketing, telecommuting, distance
learning, medical consultation, video conferencing and more—almost anything that
benefits from high-speed, low-delay networking capabilities.
In a memo addressed to the "Technology Community," Idaho Rep.
Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum, invited members from local libraries, city councils, the school
district, the College of Southern Idaho, Sun Valley Co., the Idaho Mountain Express,
law enforcement, development companies and several Internet-dependent companies to attend
her April 17 brainstorming session.
So far, the attitude of most toward the ATM service seems to be "If
you build it, they will come." Others are simply scratching their heads about what
they fear will be high-priced technological overkill.
As the information systems manager for Hailey-based Power Engineers, T. R.
Bowlin oversees the company’s extensive computer network. During a telephone
conversation on Monday, Bowlin said the new ATM service is a step in the right direction
for Hailey because it will attract low-impact, highly profitable businesses to the area.
"This is a way for the Wood River Valley to recruit the Marketrons (a
Hailey software producer), recruit the high-tech industries," Bowlin said. "The
Wood River Valley is going to grow. Let’s promote the clean, high-tech industries,
not dirty manufacturing industries."
While Power Engineers is one of the most technologically advanced
companies in the area, Bowlin admitted that he didn’t know specifically what he would
use the ATM service for.
"It’s not important to me today," he said. "But it
will be important in 18 months to two years," he predicted.
For one, bandwidth requirements for companies like Power Engineers
increase constantly due, mostly, to ever-more-complex and bulky software upgrades. To
illustrate his point, Bowlin pointed out a 10-megabyte hard drive that he thought
he’d never fill up back in the 1980s, but "now you could fill it up with one
file."
As uses, such as videoconferencing, get more and more sophisticated,
Bowlin said, he needs ever more bandwidth.
Across town at Marketron, a company that creates broadcasting software for
radio and television stations, network systems administrator Richard Smith said he expects
broadcasters to begin transferring actual broadcasting content over the Internet soon. In
fact, he said, some radio stations are already doing it. High-performance ATM service will
only encourage it to happen more, he said.
Whatever the uses will eventually be for ATM service, U.S. West plans to
have the necessary hardware installed and operating by early July.
At a cost of about $1,000 per month, ATM service is intended for use by
medium to large businesses. The equipment U.S. West must install for the service, however,
lays the groundwork for DSL (digital subscriber line), which could provide low-cost,
high-speed residential connections in the near future.
