Findlay, Ohio - Remember Doc in "Back to the Future" talking about Gigawatts in the flux capacitor? Well, it looks like the future is coming at The University of Findlay a little faster than anticipated, too.

Later this spring UF will be fiber optically connected directly to Ohio’s Third Frontier Network (TFN) at one gigabit per second, thanks to a federal allocation of $373,722 from the congressional Consolidated Appropriations Act.

An initiative of the Ohio Board of Regents and OARnet, an Ohio Internet Service Provider, the TFN is a state-owned, 1,600-mile fiber optic network that is revolutionizing communication and collaboration among Ohio’s institutions of higher education.

“The new network, which replaces old copper lines with fiber optic ‘glass,’ will not only speed communication traffic, but allow us to easily build more ‘lanes’ as they are needed,” said Scott Walthour, information technology officer for the campus.

Development of the TFN was originally unveiled as a three-stage process under which most private schools were going to have to wait until an undefined third stage of the project was initiated. This allocation has allowed UF to leapfrog that timeline and be connected to the TFN much earlier than most other institutions.

University trustee Lynn Child helped champion the cause of making Findlay one of the few private institutions considered for inclusion. Monies dedicated for this expansion of the TFN came from the U.S. departments of Health and Human Services and Education specifically so UF can collaborate with others over the network for homeland security training and joint simulations.

Video conferencing equipment that uses the most common protocol on the Internet is also included in this appropriation so UF can connect with many other sites across the state and world through that medium. “This will provide UF with two great advantages — the ability to rapidly increase our connectivity to resources found within the TFN and on the larger Internet, and the ability to offer cost-effective interactive video conferencing for all colleges and programs within the University,” Walthour noted.

Gaining a high-speed on-ramp to the Information Highway will sweep UF, and the entire Findlay area, onto the leading edge of Ohio’s latest frontier — the telecommunications revolution that has swept the planet in the past decade. This advancement will connect UF, and eventually the rest of the Findlay community, to a new infrastructure much like historic transportation advancements such as canals, railroads and the interstate highway system.
 
For more information, contact Suzanne English, UF director of public information, at 419-434-4425 or 419-306-7552 - cell.