Some municipalities have taken it upon themselves to bring out fiber networks, in a bid to draw users to certain places by offering the very best in connectivity without the threat of bandwidth cap or other issues that might hamper the experience. Managed service provider (MSP) Windstream operates its own fiber network in Little Rock, and recently took some steps to augment its performance.
With the new expansions, Windstream's network will be better able to offer a wide array of services, as well as better connectivity in general. The system will be able to connect several more data centers, reports note, as well as commercial buildings in the region.
Perhaps one of the greatest beneficiaries of the Windstream network is Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport, which hosts nearly two million passengers daily, employs over 3,000 people, and realizes $1.2 billion in economic benefit for the area annually. With Windstream, it can offer what its executive director Ronald F. Mathieu considers the best Wi-Fi connection on Earth.
Additionally, with a fiber-fed backbone to work with, Windstream itself can offer an array of exciting services in its MSP role, including software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN), unified communications (UC), network security, and cloud-based services, among other options.
Windstream CEO Tony Thomas commented, “We’re proud to make this investment in our hometown to help create a new level of connectivity and network stability for all the businesses here, especially the Downtown, Midtown, West Little Rock, North Little Rock, Northshore Business Park, Airport/Port Authority and Conway areas. It also will allow us to offer our customers an expanded product suite and higher levels of service.”
MSPs commonly know that managed services can't be provided very effectively without a proper backbone of Internet access to work with. Thus it's not much of a surprise that Windstream would take the bull by the horns, so to speak, and set up its own fiber network to serve as that effective underpinning. Chances are its customers are pleased with such a development as well, a point that allows Windstream to effectively control at least a couple layers of market all at once.
While some firms have discovered that fiber is too costly to be effective, and are waiting to go whole hog on 5G, others are finding a value here, and MSPs like Windstream may well be leading the way on this front.
Edited by
Alicia Young
