Douglas Fast Net Case Study
Douglas Fast Net is a subsidiary of Douglas Electric Cooperative in Roseburg, Oregon. The company started offering faster telecommunications to Douglas County in 2002. For years, DFN operated with a common broadband model — an end-consumer provider system relying on multiple backbone providers. It paid multiple vendors for transport and then maintained expensive routing equipment at peering facilities in Portland and Seattle, far from its territory. This was costly, but for years it was assumed to just be the cost of doing business for a rural network.
“We’ve struggled to reliably serve high speeds rurally. If you are out here, you know there is a huge demand for connectivity.”
— Todd Way, General Manager of Douglas Fast Net
The growing demand for high-speed internet services in rural communities across the country is no different in Douglas County, and DFN sought a new approach to address a growing demand for performance and reliability among its customers.
“We’ve struggled to reliably serve high speeds rurally. If you are out here, you know there is a huge demand for connectivity,” said Todd Way, General Manager of DFN. “We provide connections and access to information for home schools, health clinics and small businesses. We see what an important difference good network access makes in our community.”
DFN found a way to transform connectivity with greater redundancy and lower cost. Instead of the traditional approach of adding vendors, the company consolidated to a single vendor: LS Networks.
