CFU Upgrades Fiber Network to Increase Bandwidth
CFU's world-class fiber network connects to every local home and business but it doesn't end at the city limits. We have fiber paths to three highly connected internet backbone networks in Des Moines Minneapolis and Chicago.
CFU recently completed an upgrade to fiber connections from Des Moines and Minneapolis. Equipment was upgraded to increase bandwidth and pave the way for future internet speed upgrades. Work is in progress to also upgrade fiber connections from Chicago.
Connections to all three cities were made to improve reliability. If something were to sever one of the paths the other two fiber connections would maintain full internet service.
CFU continually upgrades equipment and our fiber connections to ensure internet services can continue to meet customers’ needs.
“CFU stays ahead of peak internet demand by monitoring usage and increasing our bandwidth capacity as needed” says Charles Dostale CFU Director of Communication Services and Chief Technology Officer. “As CFU customers add more connected devices per household and each of those devices require more bandwidth we want to be sure we can always exceed expectations and deliver an exceptional user experience.”
In 2010 Cedar Falls had a peak internet demand of 700 Mbps (megabits per second) or .7 Gbps (gigabits per second). Today at peak our system delivers over 40 Gbps to Cedar Falls residents.
While bandwidth is an important component of internet service latency also plays an integral role in the user experience.
“Bandwidth is the capacity of data that can be downloaded at one time” says Charles. “Latency is the speed at which a chunk of data can be delivered. For example on a webpage latency is the time it takes the image videos or graphics requests to be answered.”
CFU offers low latency or a quick response and strive to continually improve scores along with increasing available bandwidth. Both allow CFU to continue to offer some of the fastest internet in the country and prepare for future needs.