Trucks on the curb. Roadside digging. Traffic detours. Workers invading your quiet neighborhood. Although we do our best to minimize disruptions, we understand that the fiber construction process can be an inconvenience.
There is a lot of improvement going on around Estes Park these days! Improving any infrastructure—from internet networks to public roads—can be a hassle at the time, but the outcome is worth the temporary disruptions. As we work hard to bring future-proof fiber internet to our community, we wanted to take a few minutes to look ahead and consider all the value fiber can bring to our town.
We believe fiber is worth the trouble because we believe the Estes Valley is worth it—and we hope you’ll agree!
Fostering Remote Work Opportunities
For starters, fiber facilitates remote working. This provides more options to the people who live in our town while also enabling more people to move here and contribute to our local economy.
Remote working has expanded exponentially over the past several years, with some estimates indicating that up to a quarter of all professional jobs will be remote for at least a majority of their time. And having a reliable internet connection is simply essential for those remote workers to be productive and stay competitive with their colleagues!
Remote work involves much more than just web browsing and checking emails. Quality, interruption-free online videoconference calling is critical for remote workers to stay connected to their fellow staff members. Fiber internet has both the speed and the bandwidth necessary to make video calling clear and dependable, dramatically reducing the frustration so many individuals have felt in the past.
Of course, the presence of a trusted internet connection also makes employers much more willing to let their employees work remotely from home in the first place! We’re excited to see local residents take advantage of more remote work opportunities in the months and years to come.
Energizing Economic Growth
The economic value of fiber internet extends well beyond remote workers. Indeed, our community’s entire economy is improved by having access to future-proof internet.
Existing businesses are more efficient and can compete with companies in any major metropolitan area in America—or even around the world. That’s because Trailblazer Broadband’s fiber internet is as fast as that of any large city.
Having fiber internet helps attract new business investment to our area, too—and with it, more jobs. Fiber has a “multiplier” effect on our local economy, as each new business and job attracted to our area because of fiber spreads economic growth across our region, helping it grow and flourish.
Improving the Value—and Security—of Your Home
As fiber internet is the most sought-after form of high-speed internet in America today, having internet through Trailblazer Broadband can also increase the value of your home.
Indeed, one study indicates that having fiber internet can increase the value of a home by 3.1%! For the average-priced home in America, that could be a difference worth many thousands of dollars.
High-speed internet also helps protect your investment by keeping your home safer, too. Smart home technology has advanced considerably over the past several years. Smart cameras and doorbells can prevent “porch pirates,” smart lighting adds visibility at night and deters trespassers, and security systems can alert you and emergency services if disaster strikes while you’re away.
Facilitating Home Health Care
The technology enabled by fiber internet doesn’t just protect your home but the people inside it, too. The innovations in telehealth in recent years have made getting health care, including urgent care, faster and easier than ever before
A reliable internet service with fiber lets you speak one-on-one with your physician and other healthcare providers from home, making many health consultations much quicker and more efficient. These at-home telehealth sessions can even save you from unnecessary trips to the doctor’s office in the first place!
Telehealth isn’t just for conveniently treating the common cold, either. With a sufficiently strong internet connection, home health video conferences can provide better ongoing care and monitoring for those with chronic health conditions.
Improving Our Community and Providing Educational Resources
Beyond the walls of your home, the pillars of our community benefit from fiber’s incredible speeds and generous bandwidth, too. Public schools can provide extra learning resources for all our students and teachers. Public libraries can offer increased research capacity, media, and programs. Community centers for seniors and youth can extend their outreach through skills-building and hobby workshops. Emergency services are able to respond more quickly and accurately when needed.
In this way, Trailblazer Broadband’s fiber internet does far more than just help an individual family enjoy their home or a small business get the job done. At its core, fiber is as important a part of our community’s infrastructure and future as our roads and the electrical grid.
Competitive Gaming and Esports
Finally, fiber’s many advantages extend to the vast world of online gaming. Whether enjoyed solo or with friends or other competitors, online gaming has become a hugely popular pastime in America. And Trailblazer Broadband’s sophisticated fiber technology has all the bandwidth and extraordinary speeds to prevent lag, crashes, and other delays that plague online gaming, ensuring the best possible gaming experience.
While this may seem frivolous compared to other examples above, gaming isn’t only about having fun or passing the time. Esports (competitive video gaming in leagues and tournaments) has become a booming enterprise, taking ordinary online gaming and turning it into a serious sport
Esports can open up exciting opportunities for the next generation in our community. To date, more than 30 colleges and universities offer esports scholarships to talented gamers, some of which reach into the tens of thousands of dollars per year! From there, graduates can even find a career in many gaming-related fields. (Selfishly, we hope some of them will come back and join our own team to help us continue improving technology in our town!)
Get Connected
As we continue to build out fiber in our town, we’re excited about the future this technology can make possible here in Estes Park and we hope you agree! To find out when you can get connected, visit Trailblazer Broadband or call 970-577-3770 today.
Springtime in the Rockies is always full of surprises, which recently included a system-wide power outage for the Estes Park Power and Communications service area during the evening of March 30th. Estes Park Power and Communications line workers worked to restore power quickly and safely in less than three hours. During the outage, a number of questions came into Trailblazer Broadband’s 24-hour customer service line about the impact of a power outage on broadband service, and the Trailblazer team thought it was important to share the answers to those questions publicly.
First, in the event of a power outage such as the one on March 30th, Trailblazer Broadband internet service is available and accessible, thanks to backup resources that power the broadband network combined with redundant fiber paths out of Estes Park. If one fiber path is compromised, another one is instantly and automatically used to reroute internet traffic. If an outage is caused by fiber damage rather than a power interruption, the internet connection may be lost until a repair can be made. In that case, Trailblazer clients can go to www.trailblazerbroadband.com and click on “Status” for updates.
The second part of the connectivity answer depends on the internal workings of your home or office. Assuming your home is still connected to the internet, the next link is your Trailblazer Nokia Gateway modem/router which requires power to operate the same way your TV, monitors, and gaming devices do.
Of course, anything with a charged battery will work – a computer, laptop, tablet, smartphone, etc. For that reason, anyone who depends on the internet for work or school may want to consider investing in an Uninterruptible Power Supply, commonly called a UPS. Basically, a “battery in a box,” a UPS is a backup power supply for your Gateway and other essential devices, which can provide power for periods of time ranging from minutes to hours during a power outage.
If your Gateway has power from a UPS and the batteries are charged on your other devices, those devices can connect to the internet via WiFi or a hard-wired connection during a power outage. Many UPS products have multiple outlets and/or USB ports, much like a power strip, so you can power other essential devices as well as your Gateway modem/router as needed. Costs and capabilities of UPS backups range greatly across a variety of potential purchase options.
For home use, a UPS can keep you from losing your work or forcing a hard shutdown due to a sudden power outage. If the power is out longer than the battery life of the UPS, you have time to properly save your work and shut down your device. It is also necessary to have battery backup if you use a computer-based or Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone. Some UPS units protect your equipment from power surges, often absorbing any voltage irregularities without you even realizing it.
When considering a UPS purchase, first determine which devices besides your modem that you may want to power during an outage, keeping in mind that some devices such as TVs take a great deal of power and will drain your UPS more quickly. Some devices may already have battery backups of their own. For example, Medical Device Uninterruptible Power Supply Systems (Medical Device UPS Systems) are designed to provide uninterrupted power precisely for your particular medical device. Most home security systems are programmed to switch to backup battery power during a power outage. In both of those examples, it is important to double-check your system’s unique requirements.
Beyond purchasing a UPS, you may consider other long-term back options such as generators, cellular hotspots (assuming that the cell towers are operational), and heavier-use UPS units for businesses. To be prepared, assess your own situation and what is critical to you, your family and your business in the event of a future outage. As with fire and other weather dangers, it is advisable to have an emergency contingency plan for your technology as well!
Trailblazer Broadband is municipally owned and is Estes Park’s only locally supported high-speed broadband service provided over fiber optic lines. The Town of Estes Park provides information only and does not endorse any of the listed companies, the views they express or the products/services they offer. For more information about internet service, contact Trailblazer Broadband at info@trailblazerbroadband.com or (970)577-3770. More Trailblazer news is available at www.trailblazerbroadband.com and https://www.facebook.com/TrailblazerBroadband/
Whether you love your landline, a.k.a. home phone, or want to say goodbye to it, with high-speed fiber internet you have the speed, bandwidth and reliability to choose from a number of options and likely save money too.
Some people are choosing to use their cell phones or a free internet service such as Skype, FaceTime or Google Hangouts which doesn’t require any additional hardware or setup. You simply use an app on your phone or download the software to your computer, laptop or tablet, and use it for voice and/or video calling.
If you prefer to keep your home phone, VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) is a phone technology that allows you to make and receive phone calls using the internet instead of traditional phone lines. It is economical and just as easy to set up as the landline phone service that you have right now. The only difference is it works over the internet instead of a traditional phone line. You probably have already used VoIP before without knowing it, through an app like Skype or Google Voice.
Trailblazer Broadband, Estes Park’s community-owned and operated fiber broadband company, has looked into offering phone service along with internet connectivity. After much research, Trailblazer determined that in light of existing options on the market and our relatively small customer base in Estes Park, it would not be able to offer VoIP phone service at a competitive price to our community.
While Trailblazer doesn’t endorse any specific VoIP phone provider, there are several great options to choose from including Vonage for Home and a provider called Ooma, which is a personal favorite of some associates here at Town Hall and some of our customers because of it’s low cost and ease of use. VoIP phones also provide 911 service, provided they have the internet and electricity to operate. This is easily accomplished in a power outage with battery backup so you don’t lose your phone and 911 service during a power outage. A UPS battery back can be found online or in stores like Best Buy, Walmart, Target, or wherever electronics are sold.
According to a recent AARP article, “At the moment, … Sunnyvale, California-based Ooma appears to be alone in offering something new that addresses reliability in an emergency. For several years, it has delivered very inexpensive VoIP service that competes with the likes of Vonage…In addition to the cost savings, the Ooma Telo 4G automatically gives first responders your home address in a 911 emergency. If you have a power outage, the backup battery will keep the phone running for up to 10 hours.” Read more of what AARP has to say about VoIP service in general and Ooma in particular.
Other advantages of VoIP phone service include:
- Most services work with many existing phones, so you likely won’t need a new phone.
- You will be able to keep your existing phone number or get a new one.
- Set up is pretty simple…You’ll just plug the phone into the back of your Gateway and go.
- Most services come with standard features such as caller ID, call forward, call screening and blocking, etc.
Finally, many people ask about 911 and emergency services since traditionally in an emergency, a good old-fashioned landline phone has been regarded as the most reliable method of communication. However, according to Chief Executive Michael Martin of RapidSOS, which works with thousands of 911 call centers across the U.S., “We are now entering an era where it is actually safer to call 911 from a cellphone because of all of the additional information that you are able to share.” For example, Apple iOS users can choose to share critical health information via the Apple Medical ID feature, a potentially lifesaving function.
As recently as 2004, over 90 percent of households in the U.S. had an operational landline phone, according to data provided by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. In 2020, that figure has plummeted drastically to about 40 percent. As landlines become more expensive and less widely supported, it may be time to think about a change. Learn more about how VoIP works in this helpful Beginner’s Guide.
If you’re like most people, you commonly use the terms “Wi-Fi” and “Internet” interchangeably. Actually, Wi-Fi and the internet are two separate things that work together.
Think of it this way…The Internet is the data, or the vehicle. Wi-Fi is a wireless network technology that sends this data via internet connections – the highway – through the air to wide area networks and on to non-wired computers.
Wi-Fi allows devices such as your mobile phone, tablets, TVs and other wireless devices to connect to communicate the same way as when network cables are used, just without the actual cables. A Wi-Fi network is basically a wireless local network.
Slower speed on Wi-Fi doesn’t mean there is something wrong with your internet. In fact, slower Wi-Fi speed is pretty much inevitable, since wireless technology uses Radio Frequency or RF waves to send data, and these waves ALWAYS degrade over distance – it’s just a matter of physics.
Wi-Fi connections are more prone to interference, signal loss and degradation, which all increase over distance. These factors can reduce the speeds you can extract out of your internet service when using Wi-Fi.
So what can you do to optimize your Wi-Fi?
- Try a quick reset of your router and devices.
- If possible, move around to reduce interference from devices (microwaves) and obstacles (concrete floors and walls) and to be closer to your Nokia Gateway.
- Reduce network traffic (the number of users and/or devices) to increase Wi-Fi speeds.
- Ensure that your devices are capable of the desired speeds and that the operating systems on those devices are up to date.
- Consider switching to a wired connection for maximum speed. You’ll be able to extract the maximum possible out of your internet package if you plug into your router; it’s much harder to do that on wireless, especially the further you move from your router.
- Call Trailblazer’s 24 x 7 Tech Support at 970-577-3770 to diagnose any issues that could be impacting your Wi-Fi speeds.
Fiber optic lines are not only necessary to provide Trailblazer Broadband high-speed internet to homes and businesses in Estes Park, but they also serve as the foundational backbone of Estes Park Power & Communications’ Advance Metering Infrastructure (AMI). The AMI is comprised of smart meters and infrastructure devices to transmit the meter reading data. According to Reuben Bergsten, Utilities Director for Power & Communications, “Our AMI data is analyzed to reveal potential problems, and we use that information to initiate preventative maintenance that in turn reduces the risk of wildfire from our electric infrastructure.” Forbes Magazine mentioned Estes Park’s own AMI Coordinator Sarah Clark in the following article on Wildfire mitigation: Wildfire Season Is Year-Round. How To Keep The Lights On And Businesses Running
Learn more about Estes Park’s AMIs and Smart Meters.
Summer is here and so are our seasonal neighbors, friends and visitors. More people means more events, more business, and yes, more traffic – even on the internet. Now that Trailblazer Broadband has completed the build-out of more than half of its fiber infrastructure, Trailblazer clients will have significantly better summer experience than in the past.
Here’s how:
Better bandwidth in the fiber optic network means less slowing when more people are using the internet simultaneously.
Trailblazer’s three – yes 3! – redundant fiber paths out of town mean service continuity with far less chance of service interruptions.
Trailblazer is the only local option for internet with symmetrical speed of up to 1 GIG (1,000 Mbps) for downloads AND uploads with no data caps. Most alternatives only offer around 20 Mbps for uploads as part of “1 GIG” service.
Why does it matter? Upload speeds are critical to anything where you are SENDING rather than RECEIVING information over the internet, such as
- Video calls (FaceTime with the grandkids, anyone?),
- Backing up files to the Cloud
- Uploading vacation and wedding photos to social media for friends and family
Yes, we’re tooting our own horn a bit, but we know that when you’re in Estes Park, you want to spend as much time enjoying the beauty and fun of the outdoors, not sitting behind a computer screen. We’re here to make that happen!
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