Ammon building new Internet roadway
The city of Ammon is taking huge steps to be on the cutting edge of technology. Mayor Dana Kirkham signed her name to support a new way to measure the actual health of your Internet.
“There was a study that was done by the office of government accountability that said, ‘do consumers understand how to evaluate what they are getting in broadband connectivity? The answer is no,'” said Bruce Patterson, the director of technology for the city of Ammon.
The goal is fast, reliable, and affordable Internet. To meet that, there must be a way to effectively measure what consumers are getting. The problem is most service providers want you to check your Internet speed on their site, which only shows how fast their network is, not the Internet in your home.
“You can run speed tests and there are a number of various sites, but none of them really make sense. How do you make a comparison? The average consumer doesn’t understand how to do that or evaluate what the problem is,” said Patterson.
Speed tests show that current Internet offered is only running around 13 megs, though advertised at much higher. The Internet at the Ammon technology department is running at 300 megs.
“Benefits us as a nation if the FCC comes out and says, ‘here are some tools you can run that will tell you if you have a problem where is the problem. Is it your provider? Are you getting what you’re paying for?’ It’s not just a matter of benefiting us, but it’s crucial to determine if municipalities start to engage in this to provide better service. How do we know if people need or desire better service unless they are able to measure and compare it with what they are currently getting?” said Patterson.
Ammon is currently building an infrastructure with the capacity to bring a better network to Idaho Falls and Ammon.
“As a city or government we build or maintain roads, but we don’t determine who drives on those roads. The Internet works the same way. We have data packages, that’s what our open network is. We invite service providers to come onto our network and deliver their packages across our network,” said Ty Ashcraft, network administrator.
Virtual Gateway Labs is building this roadway. A city network where Internet providers can tap into the Ammon network and provide faster, cheaper services.
“From our next generation services and products; we are looking at a pay-as-you-go approach and virtualized gateways that will move this industry to the next level,” said Aman Sehgal, vice president of Virtual Gateway Labs.
This gateway will physically bring service providers into the area, benefiting the local economy.
To learn more about the open network plan, the city of Ammon technology department will be presenting at City Hall Thursday at 7 p.m.
