Bettendorf's investment in fiber optic network

Now city leaders hope the network’s plans for even higher speeds will play a key role in bringing new businesses and jobs to the area.

While private communications companies make fiber optic connections available throughout the Quad-Cities, Bettendorf is unique because of the city’s partnership with Central Scott Telephone in Eldridge.

The city and company installed the network at a cost of $350,000 to $500,000 while the ground already was being dug up for the installation of a traffic light system, said Steve Van Dyke, the city’s director of economic development.

It came as a relief to businesses such as Ascentra Credit Union, located at 1710 Grant St. Up to that point, Ascentra had to rely on Internet service carried through overhead telephone wires, which are susceptible to outages caused by everything from ice storms and high winds to squirrels, said Brad Knutson, vice president of information systems for the credit union.

“That is very, very unreliable,” Knutson said.

The system in place is capable of transferring data at a speed of one gigabit — or 1 billion bits — per second. Just two years ago, that would have been enough capacity to provide Internet service to the entire Quad-Cities, said Butch Rebman, president and chief operating officer of Central Scott Telephone.

This summer, the company plans to upgrade the network to 10 gigabits per second.

“Bandwidth is key,” Rebman said. “People demand it, they want it, and we’ll be able to provide it.”

The network includes 37 miles of fiber that run to routers at two “points of presence,” Rebman said. One is at the company’s office in Eldridge, and the other is in downtown Davenport. Both operate simultaneously, so if one is disabled for some reason, the other can continue to provide service without interruption.

Fast and reliable network

The fiber optic network not only allows users to move large amounts of data quickly, it is secure and reliable, said Mark Haager, who said he located his ONEMEDIA web hosting and software development business in Bettendorf specifically because he would have access to fiber optic Internet service.

Haager said the more common DSL Internet service can have upload speeds that are much slower than download speeds.

“That doesn’t work for a business,” Haager said. “My customers’ download speed is my upload speed.”

As the city continues to seek tenants for the 117-acre Iowa Gateway Center business park located near Interstate 80 and Middle Road, the fact that the fiber optic network already is in place is a key part of the city’s pitch, Van Dyke said.

Van Dyke said he goes on about four trips a year to market the business park to so-called FIRE sector businesses — finance, insurance and real estate.

Along with Bettendorf’s partnership, other companies also provide fiber optic access in the Quad-Cities. The presence of fiber optic connections is often a selling-point when talking to businesses considering relocating or expanding in the area, said Elaine Barreca, senior vice president of communications for the Quad-Cities Chamber of Commerce.

“You have to be able to communicate with people throughout the world, and that’s one thing we can do here,” she said.

Pat Burke, the economic development director for the city of Moline, said the city has discussed installing a similar system along the city’s riverfront, which would serve the new Western Illinois University — Quad-Cities Riverfront campus and the RiverTech technology corridor. But Burke said it would be difficult to secure state funding to help pay for the installation.

“It’s extremely expensive to do,” Burke said.

Private companies offer the service in Rock Island, said Greg Champagne, the city’s director of community economic development.

It’s not for homes

Rebman said although it is possible for his company to run fiber optic Internet to homes in Bettendorf, it’s not cost-effective or necessary for most people.

Organizations such as the Fiber to the Home Council are advocating for greater residential access, and some communities in Iowa already are moving in that direction.

In Moulton, Iowa, a town of about 650 people in south-central Iowa near the Missouri border, every business and home in town has access to a fiber optic network installed by the Farmers Mutual Telephone Cooperative, said Tod Faris, executive director of the Appanoose Economic Development Corp.

Faris said last summer, a member of the community did an Internet search to find out if there were any businesses that might want to open a facility in Moulton because of its fiber optic network. The man sent an unsolicited email and made a phone call to Midwest TeleServices International, or MTI, a North Dakota-based company whose services include inbound and outbound sales, customer service and data processing.

Faris said the system and the community were exactly what MTI was looking for, and the company opened a new facility in January that employs about 20 people.

“It’s a great system,” Faris said.

Indianola (Iowa) Municipal Utilities General Manager Todd Kielkopf said his company has made fiber optic Internet service available since 1999 and this fall, is planning to begin an effort to make the service available residentially.

Kielkopf said he didn’t know of any businesses that moved to Indianola because of the fiber optic access, but he knows some have stayed because of it.

Rebman said this summer’s upgrade can only help Bettendorf’s economic development leaders as they speak to people thinking of moving businesses to the city.

“You can just tell him that we’ve got 10-gig ethernet sitting on the curb, and he’s going to smile,” Rebman said of prospective clients. “He just has to. And we’re going to market that very heavily.”