SPRINGFIELD – At least 8,500 households in Springfield now can connect to a new fiber Internet company — one that boasts “the fastest home Internet in the country.”
Ziply Fiber on April 24 was celebrated by the Springfield Chamber of Commerce with a ribbon cutting ceremony.
Fiber is most notably different from cable Internet because of its faster uploading and downloading speeds, according Rod Putney, the company’s vice president of marketing.
Putney said that the first Internet technologies only focused on cable TV, “and then they figured out they could bring the Internet over those same wires, so their whole setup is set to send a lot of data one way and not much data back the other way,” he said. “With fiber optic, it’s equally fast both ways.”
Much of Springfield’s other connections are aerial, but this fiber-optic technology can be installed either above ground on telephone poles or below ground through conduit pipes, according to Putney.
The City noted that any Internet provider come to town, but Comcast is the exclusive franchise provider for cable in the city.
Council president Joe Pishioneri said Ziply will “help the ratepayers and subscribers when there is healthy competition.”
Ziply has been in operation since May 2020 and spans four states – Montana, Idaho, Washington, and 48 cities in Oregon. The company continues to eye other area cities, too, like Cottage Grove. Jake Boone, assistant city manager, said the City is still in negotiations with the company for its franchise agreement.
“We launched the fastest home Internet in America,” Putney said. “It’s funny — I was having dinner last night, and the guy was an IT professional. He said, ‘Well, what’s your fastest speed?’ And I told him ‘50 GB,’ and he’s like ‘What? University of Oregon uses 100GB, and they’re servicing the whole university with something someone could get in their house practically?’ It’s a big difference that way.”
