The completion of Molalla Communications Company’s fiber-optic project means more than just faster upload and download capabilities for the cooperative’s current members; it’s an attractive asset for companies interested in making Molalla home and a reason for consumers to cut down on costs associated with television entertainment.

MCC first began exploring its options for the fiber-optic project in 2005. President and CEO Steve Loutzenhiser said the MCC board made the decision to switch to fiber optics based on feedback from members in the cooperative. The project was completed this May. “Fiber now covers 100 percent of MCC’s service area,” Loutzenhiser said.

The reasons for the switch from copper to fiber?

“Fiber-optic cable is much faster than copper, and much less temperamental,” said Chris Michalopoulos, vice president of marketing and member relations for MCC. “The only limitations on fiber optics are the electronics at each end of it.”

The fiber-optic cables, made of reflective glass tubes, transmit information using laser light pulses. With the fiber optics MCC has installed around Molalla and Mulino, users have the ability of downloading information at speeds up to 40 megabits per second and uploading information at speeds up to 10 mbps. To compare, not even Verizon, Qwest, Comcast or Frontier offers those speeds to customers. Albeit, Frontier could soon offer speeds up to 50 mbps to customers through FiOS, a brand name fiber-optic network, after the company purchased copper and fiber lines from Verizon. Still, MCC is atop the telecommunication companies that offer the fastest capabilities to customers in the country, according to Dave Mieuwstraten of Pivot Research, a research and marketing consulting firm in Portland that has conducted studies for the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association.

“As far as rural telecom players go,” Mieuwstraten said. “[Molalla Communications] is way ahead of its peer group around the country. And the key thing is MCC’s implementation of fiber-optics and the speed that they offer.”

Fiber-optic technology has been available for years. Still, even as the service becomes more attractive, the number of telecommunications companies that offer it is vastly less than the number that do. And no one offers the service to customers for under $50, said Mieuwstraten. Except MCC, which currently offers three high-speed packages: XFon 40 offers users download speeds up to 40 mbps and upload speeds up to 10 mbps for $48.95 a month; XFon 20 offers speeds up to 20 mbps for downloads and 5 mbps for uploads for $41.95 a month; and XFon 10 promises speeds up to 10 mbps and 2 mbps for about $30 a month.

Loutzenhiser said that many telecommunications companies say they offer fiber-optic connectivity when, in actuality, they merely run fiber to remote sites, where the rest of the way the signal passes through copper lines, which are painfully slow and can take twice as long to transmit information — if not longer.

High-speed business

As the city of Molalla plans for its future, something to seriously consider is the allurement of MCC’s high-speed offerings. With many commercial and industrial real estate vacancies around town, this may be just the thing to help bring outside companies in.

“It’s a huge business draw,” City Manager John Atkins said of MCC’s XFon services. “It’s a feature of infrastructure that businesses consider when looking at where to move their company.”

Mieuwstraten agrees.

“One thing we know is business users are much more up to speed with what fiber-optics means for them,” he said. “Any business where broadband is core to what it does, wouldn’t have to do too much research to see what MCC is offering them.”

More so, Mieuwstraten said, is that MCC is willing to work with its customers. “That attitude is a factor that businesses look for.”

Albeit the business draw is an attractive aspect, there is another that, in the eyes of the heads of household, may trump even the ability to lure companies to town; it allows customers to watch their favorite sitcoms without subscribing to outside cable and satellite providers.

HDTV in a matter of seconds

Lance Eves is on to something. The MCC network operations and information system manager said that since the completion of the project, his family has gotten rid of their cable provider and, instead, now streams television programs via the internet, a trend that’s catching on with many others.

“With fiber there’s really no need for cable and satellite services.” Eves said. “You can stream audio and video and HD TV straight to your computer.” At 40 mbps, users can download and watch television shows within mere seconds.

If you’re the uploading type, a YouTube user or blogger that posts video to a Web site, for example, MCC’s 10 mbps upload speed — faster than most companies’ download speed — ensures the task will run as smoothly as technologically possible.