More than 20 broadband providers and students gathered in Walter Hall Friday to hear experts review Internet services in Appalachia.
Connect Ohio, a nonprofit that aims to raise awareness of the value of broadband technology and how it can be improved, informed the audience of the future of broadband usage.
The meeting featured several speakers from Internet providers including Horizon Telecom, OARnet, Intelliwave, AT&T and Frontier Communications.
Founder and President of Intelliwave Chris Cooper said that being a local Appalachian service provider is a key to their business.
“When someone is having an issue with their Internet, people like talking to people in their hometown, rather than somewhere else,” he said. “There is always someone to talk to.”
Chief relationship officer of OARnet, Denis Walsh provided a timeline of the company’s 100 Gig project — a plan Gov. John Kasich announced in February that will increase the network speeds across Ohio.
“We want to get companies to come to Ohio,” Walsh said. “Ohio has network and super computer capabilities.”
In addition, Walsh explained Internet2, which “will transform the way universities teach students, researchers share knowledge and the way businesses serve customers,” according to OARnet’s website.
The goal of Internet2 is to bring together institutions and resources to develop new technologies and capabilities that can then be deployed in the global Internet, the website says.
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