Sho-Me Technologies, LLC

By Becky Allen

Like most things in life, Internet Service Providers are not “one size fits all”.  Some providers offer lots of extra services that make things run smoothly for your business.  Others may offer bandwidth at a lower cost, but without the bells and whistles.  So how do you decide which provider to choose?

The most important question to ask yourself is, “How important is a reliable Internet connection to my business?”  Think back to the last time you lost your Internet connection.  Were you able to continue doing business?  Or did your company lose money while your employees were left helplessly waiting for the connection to be restored before they could get on with their work?

If Internet is not an integral part of your business and you can handle an occasional outage or slowdown, then you will be able to consider some of the less expensive, and less reliable, solutions to meet your business needs.    However, if your business is dependent upon its Internet connection, you will need to put more thought into finding a reliable provider and carrier.  Since no provider can truly guarantee 100% uptime, it might also be a good idea to invest in a backup solution as well.

Here are some questions to ask any ISP before you contract with them:

How will the connection reach my business?  Will it be a physical connection or will it be wireless?  If it is wireless, be sure to ask about the technology the provider uses and how things like weather, land topology and other factors might influence your connection.  If it is a physical connection, ask what medium the provider uses and how much redundancy they will provide for you circuit.  Also, ask if you will have dedicated Internet access, or if your speed could be impacted by other people using their Internet connections.

What happens if there is a problem with my service?  Does the provider have a number you can call to reach them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week?  Who will answer your call?  Ask what would happen if your connection went out at 6 p.m. on a Friday.  Would you have to wait until 9 a.m. Monday morning for someone to begin troubleshooting your problem?

How much is this going to cost?  The most reliable connections are not always the cheapest connections.  Often, pricing is influenced by factors such as bandwidth and the length of the contract term, but there are many other variables that may have an effect on your price.  Be sure to ask your carrier if there will be any up front installation charges and if your price will be locked in for the term or if there is a chance it could go up.

What services do you offer?  Bandwidth is the most obvious service, but that is just the beginning.  Some providers offer services such as email hosting and spam filtering, while others provide a connection to the Internet, but leave everything else up to you.  Your business may prefer to have the ISP handle filtering and hosting duties, or you may prefer to have full control over your connection and take care of these things in-house.

Do you have any references?  A good provider will be able to give you names and contact information for people who are using their service.  Be sure to call the references and ask about their experiences.

Where do you get your Internet?  A provider is only as reliable as their provider, so this is an important question to ask.

Sho-Me Technologies is proud to work with a number of Internet Service Providers to deliver Internet over our fiber optic network and we will work with you to find the best Internet solution for your business.  Please contact us for more information.

Here is another great success story resulting from the Sho-Me MO project: Niangua R-V Schools, located in Niangua, MO, has been in desperate need of a telecommunications upgrade for years.

The school is small and located in a rural area with only 260 students enrolled in K-12^th grades. As a member of the MOREnet system, the school receives their Internet and other on-line programs from the MOREnet network. Many other school districts which are members of MOREnet have access to Ethernet over fiber optic cable; however this technology was not readily accessible at a reasonable cost in Niangua. The telecommunications infrastructure that was available in Niangua was not robust enough to allow the school to take advantage of the hi-tech applications they needed for their students.

Through the NTIA grant received by Sho-Me Technologies and in cooperation with Webster Electric of Marshfield, MO, the Sho-Me MO project was able to make Niangua Schools a Community Anchor Institution with grant funding providing for the fiber optic cable build to the school. Now they have a 100 Mb/s Ethernet connection to the MOREnet network.

“Before our recent fiber update our students and teachers were unable to utilize the technology that our district has collected over the last five years. Due to the lack of speed and connectivity, our students were unable to research effectively and our teachers were unable to provide quick learning opportunities in the classroom. With the increased bandwidth, our students are able to research more quickly and efficiently using our laptops and tablets. Our district is pushing to provide a 1 to 1 tablet environment to all students in grades 3 through 12 for the 2012-2013 school years and this would not be possible without the upgraded fiber,” said TJ Bransfield, Niangua School Superintendent.

By: Becky Allen 

It’s grade card time!  All current Sho-Me Technologies customers will soon receive an annual review of their network performance. 

We value the trust our customers put in us, and health reports are a way to show the superior service we offer to each of them.  Most circuits on our network have an availability of 99.999% or above.

The reports list total uptime for each circuit, along with any trouble tickets that were called into our NOC during the year.  Most of these reports are delivered in person, giving us a chance to go over any outages, their causes, and the solutions for each.

Health reports are just another way that we go the extra mile for our customers.

By Becky Allen

The Community Foundation of the Ozarks has put a call out encouraging local rural education partners to consider applying for a grant to fund place-based educational programs. The Louis L. and Julia Dorothy Coover Charitable Foundation Place-Based Education Grantmaking Program of Commerce Trust will provide $102,500 in support this year, with the typical award amount ranging between $10,000 and $20,000. For more information about this grant opportunity or to learn more about the Community Foundation of the Ozarks and the Rural Schools Partnership, please visit www.cfozarks.org or www.ruralschoolspartnership.org/grants.

By: Jeff Byrd

It’s that time of year again.  Time to verify that your Form 470 has been filed with the Universal Services Administration Company (USAC).

The last day to file your Form 470 is February 21, 2012.  This is the first submission a school makes to the USAC organization for request of funding.  The Form 470 is the step that opens up the bidding process and allows vendors, such as Sho-Me to bid on your district’s technology opportunities. 

The program grants millions of dollars each year to schools districts and libraries across the United States for telecommunications and Internet services.  Missouri schools utilize this program and benefits from these funds.  The formula for funding is tied to the school’s free and reduced lunch program and is as follows.

                         Courtesy Universal Services Administration Company

As stated above, February 21 is the final day that the Form 470 can be submitted.  Once the Form 470 is complete, the school has to allow 28 days for bid and quote submissions.  The next form to be filed is the Form 471.  This form is filed when the school district selects the winning bid and awards the project to that vendor.  The form 471 is due for submission no later than midnight on March 20, 2012.

For more information, about this program and the benefits it can provide your local school; visit the schools and library page on the USAC website.  The program does limit the role Sho-Me can take in assisting school districts with these steps as this is a bidding process.  We are always available for general questions about the program and will try to put you in touch with the right people to help.

 For the past 15 years, Sho-Me Technologies has been working to expand our fiber optic network throughout south central Missouri.  Our network now spans through the state’s three largest cities and connects those communities with rural areas throughout the state.  One part of the state that remains underserved is the southeast portion.  Sho-Me is working to expand eastward and hopes to add to the coverage in this area.  Starting in 2012, Sho-Me will begin constructing a fiber optic network that will span east near Highway 60 and then run north near Interstate 55.

The project will be completed in two phases.  The first phase will be the southern portion of the route and it is anticipated to be completed by August 2012.  The second phase will then be underway with an anticipated completion date of March 2013.  Once the project is complete, the new system will tie into the existing network in two places, creating a ring and providing superior  protection.  Below you will find a map of the proposed route.

For more information about this deployment of fiber optic network or to how this network might be able to help your business or project, please contact us by emailing us at marketing@shometech.com.

Southeast Missouri Network Upgrades

                For the past year, the staff at Sho-Me has been working to complete the first phase of the Sho-Me Mo project.  Sho-Me Mo is a project that has received federal funding from the Recovery Act which enables Sho-Me to construct a middle-mile fiber optic network in territories of the state that are underserved.  If you have been following us, you have probably witnessed our progress, our setbacks, and just the overall learning curve that comes with a project of this magnitude.  Here is a look back on the events of the past year since we received confirmation of funding.

Backbone Fiber

                 One of the first tasks associated with the Sho-Me Mo project is the construction of the backbone fiber. The new routes will tie into our existing network and will introduce our network to several new communities.  Our original plan was to begin construction in April of 2011, but due to filing and environmental regulations, the official project kickoff didn’t occur until June.  Our quest to begin the fiber installation hit another hurdle when we learned that the delivery of the fiber optic cables we had ordered for the project was going to be delayed.  The delivery that was anticipated for the April/May 2011 time frame had been pushed back to early 2012.  While this was discouraging, we were able to continue with construction by burying the conduit which is used to hold and protect the fiber underground.  Fortunately, our first shipment of fiber optics arrived early and we anticipate another delivery in the coming weeks.  Once the conduit is in place, the fiber will be installed by “blowing” the fiber into the conduit.  Blowing is a combination of low force pushing and a powerful flow of air. Some of the fiber blowing has been initiated in the area of Linn, Missouri. During the first phase of our project, we will construct fiber in and between the communities of Long Lane, Buffalo, Bolivar, Warsaw, Sedalia, California, Jefferson City, Linn, Vienna, Hermann, and Washington.   This will total 233 miles of fiber.  At present time we have approximately 157 miles of conduit in place.  Fiber has been placed in approximately 4 miles of the conduit. We hope to see a conclusion of Phase I construction in early to mid-2012.

Community Anchor Institutions

One of the major benefits of our project is that we are connecting 100 Community Anchor Institutions, or CAIs.  These CAIs are places like schools, government, and public safety entities that will truly benefit from broadband services.  As stated above, we have identified 100 of these entities and we will build fiber into each one, allowing them to take advantage of our services.  Sedalia is a community where we are actively working and we have already finalized the build into 6 of our CAIs.   Our contractors are currently working on several more CAIs and we look forward to completing work at these locations soon.

Points of Presence (POPs)

                The Sho-Me Mo project is a “middle-mile” project.  The network we are building and the existing network we are granting to this project will be open access to any provider who wants to use it.  In order to make the network available to other providers, we are providing Points of Presence (POPs) where people can access our network.  These POPs are telecommunication shelters which will house equipment and rack space for interconnections with end providers.  Our network is connected to major Telco hotels and Internet hubs in St. Louis and Kansas City.  Through interconnections at our POPs, end providers throughout the state will have access to this bandwidth.  When complete, the project will have ninety POPs.  We are currently deploying fifteen new telecommunication shelters.  Sho-Me has currently placed 14 of these facilities and hope to have the 15^th operational early next year.

Future

                The Sho-Me Mo project is moving forward and we continue to work on the remainder of Phase I construction.  The second and third phase will continue on as planned in 2012 and 2013.  One way to keep up with continued progress is by signing up for our weekly newsletter.  To sign up, please click here.  As always, you are more than welcome to pose questions to us on the “Contact Us” page, here on the website, or by emailing marketing@shometech.com.

USAC e-rate Form 471 application filing window for Funding Year 2012 will open at noon on Monday, January 9, 2012 and will close at 11:59 pm EDT on Tuesday, March 20, 2012. The filing window will be open for 72 days.

Please contact Cindy Evans (cevans@shometech.com)  if you have questions or concerns prior to filing. Upon completion of filing please make sure to notify Cindy that your filing has been posted.

Video Courtesy of Gary Hamilton, Sho-Me Technologies

By Becky Allen

In our last article, we explained that Sho-Me Technologies has a presence in some of the largest carrier hotels in the state of Missouri.  In this article, we’ll explain a little about why that’s important.

• Access to other carrier networks.  While Sho-Me’s fiber optic network is the optimal choice for businesses located in south central Missouri, many companies have locations that are outside of our footprint, possibly even in another state.  Sho-Me’s presence in these carrier hotels gives us access to other carriers who may have network facilities in those areas.  This allows us to connect with the other carrier, hand the circuit to them, and have them deliver the circuit to the final destination. 
• Access to Internet providers.  Several Internet Service Providers are located in carrier hotels.  Sho-Me is able to connect with these providers and bring their Internet to your business.  This allows your business to contract directly with a Tier 1 or Tier 2 provider and have that bandwidth delivered over Sho-Me’s reliable fiber network.

These connections aren’t just happening at large carrier hotels; they happen in many places across Missouri.  Each connection opens a door to a larger area of the state or the country that can be reached by another carrier.  Sho-Me Technologies’ ability to connect with other carriers and providers allows us to better serve your business with more options.  Contact us today if you have any questions about how we can help your business connect with locations that are outside of Sho-Me Technologies’ service territory.