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Runestone Telephone
Association has provided telephone service to ten west central Minnesota
communities for 50 years. In 1993 they added cable television service for
about 12 communities, and in 1996 they expanded to provide Internet
connection to more than twenty towns.
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To service the added
lines and customers, Runestone continually replaces outdated equipment
with new technology. This included replacing the region's copper
infrastructure with fiber optic cable for increased speed and
reliability. It also meant creating a high-speed link between the
company's main offices so employees could better service the increasingly
sophisticated needs of their expanding client base. |
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Their first project was to connect the business office's Ethernet
network to the telephone equipment and Internet point-of-presence (POP)
located in the telephone office less than one mile away. They had been
using modems but wanted to take advantage of the speed the fiber between
the two buildings provided. |
| Dialing-up with Fast Internet Connection |
| "The traditional
methods of providing high-speed connections are expensive even if you are
the telephone company," said Clay Drews, Internet manager for Runestone.
"We wanted to keep our existing networks in place and had already run the
fiber between buildings. We needed a solution that took advantage of the
fiber's speed and gave good bandwidth." |
| Drews and his group
started researching available products including Transition Networks
media converters. Their goal was to find a solution that was easy to
install, inexpensive and reliable. What they found were the Transition
Networks 10BASE-T to 10BASE-FL Media Converters. |
| "Using traditional
telephone methods like a T1 line, the fastest we can go is 1.5 mbits per
second. With the Transition converters, we reach 10 mbits per second at a
fraction of the price," said Drews. "We ended up with a higher speed
connection at a much lower cost." |
| Because the first
application was installed easily and ran smoothly, Runestone staff wanted
to create another high-speed link between the two buildings. This
connection provided business office personnel with access to telephone
switch equipment in the telephone office. Using two more fiber strands
and a pair of Transition 10BASE-T to 10BASE-FL converters, Drews and his
staff easily got the job done. |
| The reaction from
staff members has been outstanding. Drews believes that personnel enjoy
both the direct connection and the speed with which they can send large
documents. "This is really important when we are sending AutoCAD drawings
or large spreadsheets. We used to wait 15 or more minutes for the files
to be sent, now we can do it in only a minute or two," Drews
explained. |
| Moving Forward with New High-Speed Links |
| In the near future Runestone will provide its customers with cable/modem
Internet service from the cable television head end. To do that, the
company will connect the Internet POP at the telephone office to a remote
head end about eight miles away. Using the fiber that is already in place
and Transition 100BASE-TX to 100BASE-FX converters, they will provide
fast Ethernet connection at a low cost. |
| "With Transition, we
take advantage of the fiber to optimize performance at a price we can
handle," Drews said. "As Runestone continues to expand, I know we can use
Transition Networks converters to keep us connected quickly,
transparently and economically." |
| Transition Provides: |
- Transparent high-speed connection between offices
- Low-cost
- Optimum performance using existing equipment
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