Much has been said about the “Promise of the Internet” over the past decade. Those conversations have been frequent and sometimes fervent in the state capitals of Washington and Oregon.
In Yakima and cities like Bend and Salem in Oregon, the same is true. Leaders meet, hold conversations with strategic business and community partners, and – given the right conditions – provide fiber-optic bandwidth to companies in communities that previously had no access.
Invest Where It’s Most Needed
When these conversations stall, it takes a company with visionary leadership and the resources to invest “up front” to bring fiber-based, ultra high capacity network deployment where it’s needed most.
LS Networks (LSN) is one of those rare, regional fiber optic internet companies that is proactively advancing our mission to provide underserved communities with fiber-based infrastructure. Building the world’s most powerful fiber-based network in an underserved community is an expensive proposition – but the businesses and communities who connect to this technology will realize both immediate and long-term returns. It’s the only connection they’ll ever need.
When the Solution Isn’t There, Invent It
In a move rarely seen outside of LSN’s Northwest footprint, we are proactively building large network expansions into business-rich metro areas without the typical assurance of having signed contracts in hand. We’ve code-named these “on-our-own-dime” expansions “clusters”. In Yakima, the newest LSN cluster covers over 30% of the metro area, including the southern township of Union Gap.
Leif Hansen, LSN’s VP of Engineering and Operations says,
“By pre-building dense network infrastructure into business-rich core commercial areas, our future customers realize the broadest range of services attainable, at the most economical cost. Because the network is pre-built, direct-to-business fiber optic Internet connections exist right outside the buildings where businesses are located. For businesses in Yakima, this means faster install times, access to a wide range of advanced service offerings, and virtually limitless capacity for customers to fully utilize their Internet and related services without any impact on speed or performance.”
It’s a Game Changer
What happens when ordinary people have the tools to do extraordinary things? They use those tools to connect, in enterprising ways, with the world. These are just a few examples:
- A former county Economic Development Director now works from home, operating a consulting business that recruits medical personnel for dozens of health care facilities.
- A family-owned trucking company keeps track of shipments and meets the expectations of clientele. Increased business is driving the need to build a refrigerated warehouse that will employ as many as a dozen more local workers.
- A farmer practices “precision agriculture” using technological innovations that enable close monitoring of fields and crops and involve heavy use of data. He uses fast internet to map fields, share information with crop advisers, and upload photos from a drone he sends aloft to check his crops.
- An office manager double checks her phone records and finds she has indeed saved more than 40% over the previous year after switching to VoIP phones.
- A physician finishes a video conference from the hospital that wants him to join their team. He’s impressed by their ability to call up illustrative screens, instantly share relevant files, and manage multiple tasks simultaneously. He’s also happy to hear the same capabilities are available at his children’s future school.
At LSN, there is a deeply embedded belief that access denied is opportunity denied. If you don’t have access to broadband and the ability to use it, you simply can’t participate in the modern economy.
LSN in the Greater Yakima Valley
With the addition of our network density project in Yakima’s South Broadway and Union Gap metro area, LSN now deploys 166 miles of fiber optic internet connectivity in Yakima County, and over 80 miles of fiber in the greater Yakima metro area.
Cluster network architecture in Yakima provides a surplus of network capacity that eliminates the constraints typically found in traditional network deployments. It will fully support existing LS Networks service offerings like Ethernet, internet, unified communications, and virtually limitless applications in the cloud. And it will continue to support evolutionary service expansion into the indefinite future.
Let’s Keep the Conversation Going
At LSN, we care about the communities we serve. That’s why we’re a proud participant in the FCC’s “Keep Americans Connected Pledge,” in which service terminations are suspended and late fees are waived for any residential or small-business customers due to disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
If you’re interested in joining the conversation about community investment, the benefits of innovation, and thriving in an ever changing and challenging world, get in touch with LSN today.
