Sep 17 2007
Rural phone cooperative GVTC Communications has installed fiber-optic lines directly to buildings in the business district of Boerne, placing the small Hill Country town among a small percentage of U.S. cities outfitted with extensive fiber optics.
The installation, completed this month, gives businesses in the San Antonio bedroom community a speedy, state-of-the-art network for phone, data and video services. It also provides New Braunfels-based GVTC a competitive bulwark against Time Warner Cable, which this summer began selling business phone and Internet service there, company spokesman Bruce Forey said.
"From a competitive standpoint, it tells Time Warner, 'If you're going to come onto our turf, you'd better bring your best,'" Forey said. "We're offering the businesses in Boerne the best technology available."
Installing fiber optics directly to businesses lets them quickly ship large amounts of data over the Internet, but telecom companies generally have been slow to do so because of the expense. Currently, an estimated 2 percent of U.S. homes and businesses have direct fiber-optic connections, according to the nonprofit Fiber to the Home Council.
Forey declined to say how much GVTC spent on its two-year fiber installation project. He did say the company has about 100 business customers in Boerne using its fiber lines.
Since Time Warner began offering business phone, data and video service in Boerne in June, it's added high-profile customers Mission Pharmacal Co. and South Texas Oncology and Hematology. It has installed direct fiber connections to businesses that have requested them.
"Within a couple of years, we're hoping to have the majority of Boerne built out," spokesman Jon Gary Herrera said.
Even so, at least one Boerne business places a value on GVTC getting there first with its fiber network.
ColdMotion Inc., which builds refrigerated truck bodies, has been using GVTC's fiber network for about six months and now regularly sends digitized schematics and plans back and forth between its clients and suppliers as far away as Europe.
President Alice Duran said she's had a good enough experience with GVTC that she's unlikely to switch if Time Warner comes calling.
"There would have to be a big dollar difference for us to switch," she said. "They have been very accommodating and have really good customer service."
Dan Rogers, president and CEO of Kendall County Economic Development Corp., said he welcomes GVTC's fiber-optic expansion.
Rogers' private-public partnership works to recruit new businesses to the area, and he said the state-of-the-art network could be a valuable selling tool as it tries to persuade companies to relocate. One San Antonio software company is mulling a move there, for example, but its principals wanted to make sure if they relocate they would still be able to send and receive large quantities of data.
"Our targets are medical and technology companies, and all of them need high-speed data access," Rogers said. "GVTC putting the fiber in has really improved our ability to bring those kind of businesses to Boerne."