NoaNet’s Fast Lane Is Ready

WAITSBURG - Is the movie on your laptop freez­ing up? Can't have more than one person in your house gaming or watching videos at one time? Dropping too many Skype calls?

Help is on the way as home and business owners can finally hook up to the No­aNet high-speed fiber optics cable that now runs through the Touchet Valley.

Waitsburg's Touchet Val­ley Communications and Dayton's Touchet Valley TV offer download speeds so high applications for it have yet to be invented. But for now, speeds of up to 50 megs will help make streaming a lot more reliable and open more doors for entertainment features.

"My wireless customers are very excited about it," said Dan Cole, who owns Touchet Valley Communica­tions in Waitsburg. "They want and need the band­width."

Cole expects he can begin offering high-speed residen- tial packages of 20 megs for $50 a month starting in the middle of the month. The hookup will require a new $100 modem, but the service itself is barely more than the current $40 monthly Touchet Valley Communications fee for about a tenth that speed.

He said most residences won't need more than 20 megs, which will easily as- sure there's no latency "as far as watching anything on line."

The new 20-meg connec- tion will mean a doubling in speed for some businesses now hooked up to Cole's high-capacity service of 10 megs with fees up to $60. Those customers will get the new speed and see their bill go down to a $50/month cross-the-board fee for ev- eryone in town.

Daytonites have been able to hook up to NoaNet since late spring, when Touchet Valley TV connected its cable network to the Internet superhighway, which owner David Klingenstein said will make the signal a lot faster and more reliable.

"The speeds are outrageous," he said. "I can push up to 50 megs anywhere in town."

Cole and Klingenstein said their speeds can go up to 100 - 150 megs but it's hard to see who might use that much bandwidth. Cole said he will offer also offer unlimited phone service for $25 - $30 a month, But Klingenstein said he finds it too hard to compete with Internet phone services like Vonage or Ooma that go as low as $4.50 a month.

Touchet Valley TV's web- site lists an 8-meg download service for $50 and 18 megs for $80, but during an inter- view Friday Klingenstein said he has fixed his rates yet and might still lower them.

He said the challenge is to price such an attractive prod- uct at a time of recession.

"I've had a lot of interest, but during a poor economy it's difficult to sell new ser- vices," Klingenstein said.

Yet he expects many in Dayton will be lured away from other services such as satellite dish or cable and stream their movies online instead. Businesses and institutions like the hospital, li- braries, banks, first respond- ers and government offices are interested in the higher speeds because they transfer large amounts of data across the net.

"That's the way things are going," he said.

Both local company own- ers who are investing in their high-speed Internet delivery infrastructure, said they have the potential for adding hundreds of new customers over time. Although other com- panies could come in and do the same, none has shown an interest so far, Cole said.

"I'm a local guy and I hope everyone will support it," Cole said.

For more information, call Touchet Valley Communica- tions at 509-520-1117 and Touchet Valley TV at 509- 382-2132.