Technology Update:

Amherst Telephone Company is proud to announce a long-term project to upgrade out network with state-of-the-art fiber optic communications infrastructure.  Last year during out summer construction season we started to put fiber optic cable in the ground designed to bring Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH).  With the increasing demand for High Definition TV and higher Internet speeds, fiber optics has the capability to provide the bandwidth demands of today and into the future. 

Our existing network is based upon a copper wire infrastructure.  Copper cable has served us well for many years but with today's demand for more services on a single wire facility, copper limits the distance and services available on our network.  Fiber optics are less distance sensitive and deliver greater bandwidth with greater reliability.  What does this mean to you our customer?

Our fiber optic system can provide:

• Multiple combination's of High Definition Televisions & Digital Video Recorders
• Extremely fast internet speeds (with speeds up to 10 Mbps and potentially higher)
• Future services such as Video-On-Demand
• Off-site residential data backup

Our current plans are to select a section of the communities we serve and upgrade our infrastructure in phases, progressively each year.  For example, our recent FTTH trials have been conducted on the fiber we buried last year in the Custer are and Highway T just outside of the village of Amherst.  We will continue to hook up customers in those areas during the summer of 2009 with this new service.

A project of this size and scope will take a few years to complete.  We are committed to bringing state-of-the-art technologies to our customers who will benefit from the improvements in Phone, Internet, and Digital TV services.