PWI | CUSTOMER SUCCESSES | WHIDBEY ISLAND TELEPHONE COMPANY

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Whidbey Island Telephone

Whidbey Island Telephone Company - Bringing Internet Service to a Remote Location

The Challenge — Keeping Up with the Mainland

Can a local, family-owned telephone company keep pace with the giants of the telecommunications industry? Whidbey Island Telephone Company has done just that, providing up-to-date communication services to local residents since 1908. They’ve been visionaries from the start, and were the first telephone company in the nation to transition to 100% underground cables. Located in Puget Sound, north of Seattle, Whidbey Island connects to the mainland only by ferry. Until recently, however, there was one gap in their communication services. They residents could connect with the Internet, but only through expensive, long-distance connections.

The Solution — Performance and Scalability

In 1992, Whidbey Island Telephone Company began to explore their options for becoming a local Internet Service Provider. They looked into a variety of equipment from all the major vendors in the industry. Their search led them to Sun Microsystems. "Sun Microsystems has the most experience with network systems," says George Henny, Whidbey’s assistant to the president. "They have a reputation for robust systems that offer both flexibility and power."

"We wanted to choose a platform that would provide the best available technology and would grow with our needs," added Jeff Wallace, Whidbey’s Internet Administrator.

Making it Work — Seamless Integration

Whidbey turned to PWI Technologies for consultation, hardware, installation and technical assistance. PWI Technologies is Sun’s Enterprise Elite Reseller in the Pacific Northwest. They specialize in UNIX system management, and have a wide range of experience in networking and Internet technologies. "We found the personnel at PWI Technologies to be very knowledgeable and energetic," says Jeff. "And the price of Sun systems from PWI Technologies was very competitive."

Whidbey chose a Sun server as the hub of its network system. It functions as the domain name server, and includes multidisk packs and Solstice DiskSuite for Solaris. Prior to establishing Internet services, Whidbey’s networking and computing systems were primarily AT&T switching and voice service equipment, with DEC VAX 4000 data processing. Their Sun-based Internet Services integrate seamlessly and help them provide excellent service options for their users, including Web access, e-mail, Gopher, Telnet, FTP and Usenet newsgroups. High-speed data connections are also available for business customers wanting a fast, "always-on" Internet connection.

The Payoff — A growing business

Since its deployment in 1994, Whidbey Internet Services has exceeded its anticipated customer base, and continues to grow at about 10 percent per month. They’ve even extended their reach, offering Internet services to other nearby communities. Two additional Sun servers have been added to the system, making it easy to handle the increasing demands on the system.

"Our mission at Whidbey Telephone has always been to provide excellent service to our local community at a reasonable cost," says Whidbey President George Henny.

For more information, please call us at 425.828.4223 or e-mail pwitechinfo@pwi.com.

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