Smithville to Turn Up Free Gigabit Connectivity for its Residential Fiber Customers

ELLETSVILLE, IN – In March Smithville Communications, Indiana's largest independent telcom, will give its residential fiber customers a free one-month boost up to gigabit-level Internet speed. With Google and other national telecoms inaugurating fiber-to-the-premise service in Austin, Texas and other parts of the nation, numerous experts are calling 2014 “the year of Gigabit connectivity.” As Smithville Communications has already been providing fiber-based gigabit connectivity for some five years, it is offering the one-month speed upgrade to celebrate the national industry advancement.

Gigabit connectivity represents a data transmission rate of one billion bits per second and its power “creates all kinds of new opportunities for businesses and residential homes alike,” explained Darby McCarty, president and CEO of Smithville Communications. “We can describe the digital horsepower power of gigabit connectivity in terms like how many seconds it takes to download large software programs or HD movies, but one can only really understand the transformational power that this brings to a home or business through hands-on experience.”

Of its 23,000 customers, about 15,000 homes in the Smithville service area have the capacity for the free month of gigabit upgrade. About 6,500 existing fiber customers in the service area will automatically receive the one-month free service upgrade on March 1, Ms. McCarty said. “For over half a decade Smithville Communications has been providing a level of high-speed Internet service that is what Google is just now lighting up in a few cities around the United States,” said Cullen McCarty, executive vice president of Smithville.

$90 Million Fiber-optic Rebuild Pays Off
Smithville Communications began a more than $90 million fiber-optics rebuild and started providing high-speed fiber-based broadband service in 2009, some five years ago. Since then, an expanding number of homes and businesses in southern Indiana and elsewhere have been experiencing the power of high-speed fiber together with its many advantages.

Creating Rural Gigabit Communities
Beside areas of the greater Bloomington region and elsewhere in southern Indiana, Smithville Communications has created fiber gigabit communities in the small and rural communities of French Lick, Sharpsville, Lizton, Gosport, and Griffin, as well as a number of remote areas in Indiana. The company is in the process of presently expanding further into a number of other larger Hoosier cities as well.

“High-speed fiber connectivity is critical for creating business opportunities, improving quality of life and advancing Hoosier life in a digital world, particularly in rural areas,” said Lt. Gov. Sue Ellspermann. “It’s great to see Smithville’s continued commitment, especially to rural Indiana.”

“This new capacity opens the doors for the higher quality of life for residents and serious business advantages that fiber brings to a community, including access to Indiana’s fastest Internet, HD IPTV and crystal-clear digital voice services,” Ms. McCarty noted. “Rural businesses, and Indianapolis and Bloomington companies who have employees working from home in virtual offices now have a significant advantage with Smithville fiber-optic broadband services.”

Internet protocol (IP) platforms used by Smithville fiber also represent the new standard that the FCC is advocating. “Smithville is already well into the process of converting our service areas to fiber-based IP, which probably won’t come to other communities and areas for some time to come,” Ms. McCarty added.