How important are fiber optic-driven telecommunications to businesses in this day and age?

The Northwest Pennsylvania Regional Planning Commission saw the writing on the wall over five years ago.

"If you didn't have a basic water and sewer infrastructure in northwest Pennsylvania, you're not going to attract new businesses, you're not even going to sustain current businesses," Northwest Commission representative Chris Beichner told the Bradford Era in June 2004. "The same is true now with telecommunications . . . and if some people haven't realized that, they will in the next two to five years."

Without a solid telecommunications infrastructure in place, rural areas such as Warren County would be left on the economic wayside, not unlike when the decision to build Interstate 80 on top of the present day Rt. 6 was changed at the last minute, moving the project to the center of the state.

Once flourishing towns like Warren were left to wither on the vine as cities and towns with direct access to the newly created Interstate Highway System exploded with growth.

Zito Media Communications Vice President Steve Zwerin likens the installation of fiber optic pipelines to the transportation hubs of the past like railroad spurs.

Zwerin's company is in the middle of an aggressive expansion project designed to bring hundreds of miles of fiber optic telecommunications lines to numerous counties in the state, including Warren County.

"The communities without a railroad didn't grow," Zwerin said. "After the railroads came the interstates. Once again, those cities that got interstates prospered economically. Those communities flourished."

"The next generation of commerce is now going through the Internet," Zwerin said, "similar to railroads, similar to interstates. Those communities that get the huge pipelines that run through the on ramps and off ramps can take charge of their future. If we brought just one of those accessible long haul pipelines here, through and around Warren County, you could bring any size corporation here."

Just such a line a redundant fiber optic ring tailored to fill local businesses' needs for ultra high speed Internet connections and digital telephone services should be up and running in the county by the end of the year.

"Until recently, access to fiber optics was cost prohibited," Zwerin says. "We can't come in here and say you can have a 100 megabyte (per second) upload connection and, oh, by the way, that's going to cost you $20,000 a month. The price of electronics has dropped so much, we can afford now to build in rural areas and offer affordable services to businesses."

"In a nutshell," says Bill Gallagher, of Insight Technology, Warren County's information technology consultant, "telecommunications can enable the growth of businesses. If properly utilized, telecom is an incredible resource. The bottom line, however, is reduced to a very simple equation: value versus cost."

"This takes us to another level in terms of service capabilities coming into the community," said Jim Decker, Warren County Chamber of Business and Industry president and CEO. "We've talked about this whole telecommunications situation for about five years, where Warren County stands. There's always been a cost factor. (Zito's development of fiber optic rings in the county) brings another player into the mix, offering services that people are looking for." WestPA.net, based in Warren, already provides fiber optic services to the Warren County library system and the Warren County School District.

Decker said the WCCBI had talked to Zito in the past, inquiring about the possibility of expanding the company's fiber optic network into the county. "But their arrival here is ahead of what we expected. I looked out the window of the office the other day and they were stringing fiber from the poles, so it's here."

"In terms of economic development, it's not just having another player, but a player with considerable capability of delivering services," Warren County Commissioner John Borz said.

Bortz has been an active proponent of increasing the county's telecommunication abilities going back to his first term as commissioner.

"We do have companies within our communities which are providing Internet access at various levels," Bortz said. "This is a good thing. However, the kind of services that Zito can provide are at a level that allows the business community to explore a whole new set of options."

Such as, Bortz said, real time teleconferencing and ultra high speed data transmitting and downloading of items such as X-rays, other images, blueprints, etc.

"If you have the right technology, it can be a real money saver," Bortz said. "What's being brought in by Zito is just that type of technology. I was talking to a business in town that told me that teleconferencing is saving them hundreds of thousands of dollars. There is a lot (Warren County businesses) are going to be able to do with this technology. This will give us a clear and decisive advantage. I like where this puts us in northwestern Pennsylvania. This is definitely a step up."