High-capacity bandwidth is said to be the wave of the future. And a national company on Wednesday officially launched its 100-megabits-per-second Internet service in Salt Lake City, which it says will allow Wasatch Front businesses to ride that wave.
E-xpedient Inc. began offering its fast-Internet service in Salt Lake City on a limited basis in May. This week's launch will be followed by similar events in other communities nationwide.
It's not available all over Salt Lake City, since individual buildings have to be "lit" with the service, according to e-xpedient chief executive officer Brian Andrew. "It only works on our network."
Andrew pointed out that he was being interviewed not by telephone, but using the company's Internet connection.
The e-xpedient network is an all-Internet Protocol network that operates like a company's Local Area Network, but in a ring configuration that provides two 100 Mbps speed full-duplex paths. The ring is then connected to local "points of presence," to provide two paths to the World Wide Web. In its written material, the company guarantees two paths to the Internet at the very high speed, using IP packet-over-SONET technology.
They use the example of two high-speed conveyor belts circling a city. Anyone who hops on the belt travels at that speed, no matter how big he is, as long as there is an opening on the belt. "E-xpedient deploys multiple rings in a metropolitan area. The total number of buildings on a single ring is determined by the total number of customers on a ring or in a building and their usage levels. Because our networks are deployed via fixed wireless, in ring and in mesh configurations, we can, without user or service interruptions, quickly and easily increase network capacity by splitting a ring, which immediately doubles capacity." They built their own network around a "selection of buildings that made sense," Andrew said. Once the buildings are "lit," customers can connect to the service "at their leisure and at the level of service they feel they want. They turn on their own service without our having to roll a truck, so there's no waiting," as long as the customers are already Ethernet-enabled. Businesses in what the company calls "e-xpedient Speed Buildings" (eSBs) can enroll and be connected within 15 minutes.
The service is not available to residential customers, and Andrew admits that's a numbers game. "There are so many commercial buildings to connect to. If you look at all of America, there are 1.3 million buildings. It's not that we don't want to. But if we had 10,000 people and told them to visit each building — that's to visit, not to wire — it would take about 10 years to do that. So we start with the most potential people to get the best return on the investment. And that's in offices."
He boasts that the service is more reliable than others because every piece of equipment is backed up with a duplicate piece.
They're also making inroads by selling the service to the companies for whatever they were paying for their Internet service from someone else. The basic plan provides the 100 Mbps access service for monthly rates that start at $100.
So far, the service is available to tenants of buildings that include including Gateway East, Gateway West, EagleGate, One Utah Center, Bank One Tower, Key Bank Tower, the Judge Building and the Clift Building.
E-mail: lois@desnews.com