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Section_B USA Choice posts growth and expansion USA Choice Internet Services, billing itself as the “hometown friendly choice, for fast, reliable Internet service,” experienced another busy year of growth and expansion in 2007. USA Choice Internet Services, billing itself as the “hometown friendly choice, for fast, reliable Internet service,” experienced another busy year of growth and expansion in 2007. Since its founding in 1995, the company said it has been committed to its goal of providing high quality, low-cost, full spectrum Internet access to northwestern and central Pennsylvania. USA Choice offers dial-up Internet access under the USA Choice name in 25 Pennsylvania counties and with its national dial-up company, On Line Anywhere, a dial-up connection can be made anywhere in the United States. “We have continued to expand and enhance our network so that our customers receive the absolute highest quality and most reliable Internet service,” said partner Ray Schwabenbauer. USA Choice has focused on expanding its wireless service during 2007. Wireless is an alternative means of supplying high-speed connections to customers that demand a premium service. The technology uses towers, radios, and antennas to deliver the connection. Wireless Internet is one of the fastest growing industries and creating a buzz in the Internet community. USA Choice is an active member of the Wireless Communications Association International (WCAI) which regularly meets to improve wireless technologies. Wireless connections already have surpassed the speeds of DSL and Cable. USA Choice has more than 450 businesses and residential customers using its wireless service in 10 locations: Oil City, Hasson Heights (Oil City), Franklin, Seneca, Cranberry, Clarion, Shippenville, Kittanning, New Castle and Lucinda. Another type of wireless Internet service, called “Wi-Fi,” is under development at USA Choice. This technology allows Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11a/b/g) enabled laptops to connect to the Internet with no additional hardware or software at speeds up to 54Mbps. Work is now starting so the service will be available in the Franklin area starting in the summer. USA Choice has partnered with Sting Communications to design, deploy and manage the Northwestern Pennsylvania Regional Wide Area Network. Three school intermediate units — Northwest Tri-County Intermediate Unit 5, ARIN Intermediate Unit 28 and Riverview Intermediate Unit 6 — have purchased Wide Area Network (WAN) telecommunications, Internet and Internet2 services, videoconferencing equipment and WAN delivered instructional applications, along with the hardware needed to achieve full functionality of the network. Services to participating districts in Erie, Crawford, Warren, Clarion, Venango, Forest, Jefferson, Armstrong and Indiana counties started in the fall. The project consisted of over 835 miles of new fiber optic cable plus 85 to 125 miles of additional fiber to be built; eight new fiber points of presence; 13 new wireless towers; 11 new core network switches; $10 million in new infrastructure investment; $6 million in new federal funding to region; and new telecommunications services available across a nine-county region. Another area of growth for USA Choice has been in fiber-optic backhaul services. With the service customers can interconnect their branch offices with multi-megabit, even gigabit, connections. Dedicated “dark fiber” and leased spectrum are available at a reasonable cost, Schwabenbauer said. “Large customers can really benefit from fiber-optic connections because of its unsurpassed speeds and reliability,” he added. USA Choice boasts about customer service. “No matter what the problem, we’ll fix it. We have people call us that can barely turn on their computer; we walk them through getting their Internet connection setup and within minutes they are sending and receiving e-mail,” said Bob O’Hara, a tech support specialist. USA Choice provides free technical support to its customers and there are no limits to how many times a customer may call. “We go the extra mile for our customers. We want first time computer owners to feel comfortable and advanced computer users to know that we are able to fix any problem they may come across,” John Webb, the lead tech support specialist. Recently USA Choice began distributing a support tools CD-ROM containing security updates, spy-ware removal tools and other common software repair tools and security fixes. USA Choice also created its HouseCalls division that specializes in computer/Internet repair. Customers can drop off their computers at the Oil City office, located at 679 Colbert Ave., to be fixed or schedule an employee to visit the customer’s home and perform an on-site repair. HouseCalls has special rates designated for spyware/virus removal, operating system upgrades, hardware upgrades, data backup and data recovery. |
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