Highland Communication Services staff members attend technology roadshow
On April 25, two Highland Communication Services (HCS) staff members traveled to Bloomington, Ill., to attend a free roadshow where next-generation technology was demonstrated.
Angela Imming, director of technology and innovation for the city of Highland, along with Jordan Bauer, HCS’ head-end technician, attended the 2016 CALIX Roadshow at the Doubletree with more than 50 other regional network, cable and phone operators. CALIX is the maker of the primary equipment in the HCS network that enables broadband, video and voice services.
Imming described the roadshow as a “chance to learn what peers in the industry are seeing in terms of market needs.”
“Statistics show that 69 percent of homes have five or more devices connected at one time and 87 percent stream movies on multiple devices at simultaneously. For this average customer, 80 to 100 megabytes (MB) of data is sufficient. However, to accommodate the rising numbers of work-from-home employees, who upload data to a server or store data in the cloud, the teen who enjoys online strategy games, or the relative who Skype’s their loved one from across the distance, the upload speed is most important. HCS’ ability to offer synchronous 1 gigabyte (GB) up and download speed is critical for those scenarios,” Imming said.
Preparing to increase the speeds to the premise from 1 GB max to 10 GB is a real eventuality, Imming said.
“I never fail to be amazed at the speed at which this industry grows. Few of us had ever connected to a wireless device 15 years ago. Now, the most commonly asked question at shops, restaurants and parks is: ‘What’s the wireless key?.’ ”
The roadshow focused on new ways to upgrade the current equipment to accommodate 10 GB and also technology to allow in-home commercial grade wireless.
The new wireless option will allow connectivity to all different channels on the wireless spectrum instead of the middle few most consumer grade wireless products allow.
“So many customers associate their Internet HCS experience with wireless devices that are not manageable and are very weak in terms of channel options. We have just started deploying the new in-home wireless solution will allow us to troubleshoot with the customer and protect their experience.”
This story was originally published May 8, 2016 at 11:18 AM with the headline "Highland Communication Services staff members attend technology roadshow."