YOUNGSTOWN SONET holdup hinders a vision

The business incubator is trying again to soup up downtown communications for high-tech companies.
By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
YOUNGSTOWN -- A vision to create a high-speed communications network and lure high-tech companies to downtown has resulted in disappointment instead.
Adelphia Business Solutions said last year that its network with advanced SONET technology would be completed by October, but it now says it won't provide service until this fall.
The time delay has disappointed businesses such as Ricciutti Balog & amp; Partners Architects, which had been looking for a speedier way to transmit drawings over the Internet.
Bob Steines, a firm partner, said the company wondered if Adelphia's network was the answer but it couldn't wait any longer. It has just signed up with another company for DSL, which uses technology to deliver high-speed service over standard copper phone lines.
Adelphia is installing its network with fiber optics, which are glass strands that provide fast service by using light.
Still, its system has disappointed local officials. It apparently won't be designed in ways that will make Youngstown stand out and help it attract high-tech companies, said Ralph Zerbonia, chairman of the Technology Leadership Council, a volunteer group.
Anticipation: That's what the Youngstown Business Incubator hoped would happen when it proposed a fiber-optic ring that would link downtown buildings. The SONET technology was to provide speed and near-flawless reliability. The ring was to be affordable because hookups would be cheaper and companies would only pay for the bandwidth they used.
The incubator dropped its plan when Adelphia entered the market, but Adelphia said it didn't like the billing plan and wouldn't use the incubator's idea.
Also, Adelphia apparently isn't creating a ring to link downtown buildings, said Zerbonia, who is general manager of Cboss Community Network in Boardman. He said it appears that Adelphia will run loops to individual customers.
Jim Cossler, incubator director, said the original plan made sense for the incubator because it is a non-profit agency. Adelphia, however, must answer to shareholders who are interested in a return on their investment, he said.
"It is disappointing because our plan would've gotten international attention for Youngstown," he said.
Cossler said, however, that the incubator is working on a new plan that could still accomplish that. He didn't want to release details but said it still involves carrying voice and data for downtown businesses.
He wants a fiber-optic network because he wants downtown to be attractive to technology businesses who graduate from the incubator. The state-funded facility has seven high-tech businesses.
"Not only don't I want them to leave the Mahoning Valley, I don't want them to leave downtown," he said.
No comment: Dan Kutchel, regional market manager for Adelphia's Cleveland office, would not comment on Adelphia's work in Youngstown. He issued a release that said installation of fiber that would connect Youngstown to Adelphia's national network has been completed, work is continuing at its switching facility in the IBM building and money has been approved for construction of the network downtown.
Zerbonia and Cossler said the arrival of Adelphia has created one improvement for Youngstown -- costs for voice and data transmission have decreased. Adelphia has been reselling phone service by renting Ameritech's lines.
Cossler said prices were artificially high previously, but businesses have told him that competition has brought prices down considerably and they are continuing to drop.
Greg Strollo, president of the downtown architectural firm of Hanahan-Strollo & amp; Associates, said his company has saved about 20 percent on its phone bill by switching to Adelphia.
For high-speed Internet access, the firm switched a couple of years ago to Time Warner's Roadrunner service, which uses cable lines. Strollo said he thinks a connection to a SONET ring would provide increased speed and reliability.
"The interest is there, but the connection is not," he said.
Youngstown State University, Home Savings and Loan and Eastern Ohio Physicians Organization are others that have switched to Adelphia for phone service.
Competition: A number of companies recently began offering high-speed Internet access, which has brought about better pricing and options for that as well, said Ron Fasano, EOPO president. Its monthly bill from Ameritech for its high-speed connection has fallen from $260 to $85. It uses a technology called ISDN, which allows voice and data to travel over the same line.
Choice One Communications of Rochester, N.Y., expects to announce its first customer soon, said Ythan Lax, company spokesman. It has been soliciting customers for voice services and high-speed data services through DSL.
Choice One has a site in Youngstown to house its switching equipment but otherwise is using Ameritech's lines, he said. It has a sales and service office in Akron.
Increasing competition will make Ameritech stronger, said Steve Kristan, the company's director of external affairs. "I think we can compete effectively," he said.
Ameritech's prices are competitive with other companies that are now offering services, but Ameritech stresses its service and support as well, he said.
Ameritech spent $12 million upgrading its equipment in the Youngstown area last year, he said. About $2.9 million was spent at its central offices on routine upgrades as well as equipment needed to provide DSL, he said. The company also spent about $900,000 for the installation of fiber in the area.
Ameritech has SONET technology throughout the area, and there are businesses that have fiber connections to it, Kristan said.
Some area officials hope Youngstown can improve its communication networks to the point where it can attract high-tech jobs.
Signs of improvement: Lloyd Lamm, Metropolitan National Bank's senior vice president of operations, has seen some evidence of that happening. Choice One remodeled a floor in the bank's downtown building last year and installed equipment on almost the entire floor.
Choice One joins Qwest Communications, a Denver-based company which has had high-tech equipment in the building for about 15 years, Lamm said.
He said these companies are operating Point of Presence (POP) centers, which are used to route information onto the Internet's national networks. Williams Communications of Oklahoma opened a POP on Southern Boulevard in Youngstown last year.
A POP can be maintained by a single technician, but Lamm said Metropolitan is trying to attract more labor-intensive operations.
"We hope Choice One will fall in love with Youngstown and bring in another floor full of people," he said.
The 17-story building is about 90 percent occupied, but the bank is remodeling an adjacent building into an office complex.
There are seven other communications companies that rent space on the building's roof for antennas, he said. A couple of those companies also have small offices in the building.
Zerbonia said he thinks a fiber ring downtown is inevitable and will happen within five years.
The area's telecommunications infrastructure should improve as local companies demand better services, he said. For example, Cboss, a local Internet service provider, recently began operating an online license plate renewal service for the state. To handle that data, Cboss added several major, fiber-optic connections to the Internet's national networks.
Ripple effect: As companies require more advanced services, communication companies will upgrade their equipment and eventually bring staff to this area, Zerbonia said.
So far, five Internet connection companies have installed fiber in the Youngstown area to connect it to national networks, according to the Technology Policy Group in Columbus.
Pari Sabety, organization director, said Youngstown had a huge jump in Internet connectivity from May to September, which were the two most recent surveys. The number of connections to the Internet backbone increased from eight to 11, but the capacity of those connections increased nearly 2,000 percent.
It was the largest capacity increase of any city in Ohio, according to statistics kept by ECom-Ohio.
Zerbonia said Cboss was responsible for most of that increase because of Oplates, the license plate renewal system.
Nearly every large city in Ohio saw rapid growth last year, showing the demand for technology is increasing, Sabety said.
Cleveland, however, has a large lead over other Ohio cities because it is on the major Internet backbone that runs from Washington, D.C., to Chicago. Companies have been locating there to set up sites that host Web pages, store data or other Internet-related business.
As of September, Cleveland had 114 connections with a connection capacity nearly four times greater than Youngstown's. That didn't include the Cleveland suburb of North Royalton, which has 12 more connections.