Switch to Switch.

SwitchPoint Networks Inc. (www.switchpointnetworks.com), formerly known as Airswitch, has quietly set up the necessary infrastructure to provide customers with next-generation Internet access, delivering speeds of 100 megabits per second which is up to 500 times faster than DSL and six times faster than standard business links.

SwitchPoint presently appears to have a corner on the market with its groundbreaking technology. It offers an economical deployment package that can be constructed for far less than the cost of competing technologies such as DSL, cable modems and fiber-to-the-home implementations.

After successful beta testing in both Springville and American Fork, SwitchPoint is gearing up for rollouts in Provo, Orem and Pleasant Grove. According to Kurt Allman, executive vice president of SwitchPoint, "Once a city has entered into a franchise agreement, depending on the size of the city, it could take from six months to a couple of years before all the physical groundwork is up and running."

SwitchPoint's system is fully duplexed and hi-directional -- meaning information can be sent and received simultaneously and at equal speeds. Unfazed by concerns of outdated cables at some point in the future, Allman says the system is fully scalable and upgradeable.

Discussions are currently underway to develop all of Salt Lake County. Laying the groundwork to increase franchise agreements, SwitchPoint also announced a deal with WideOpenWest in November, a Denver-based company that builds state-of-the-art fiber optic networks, offering high-speed connections to the Internet, digital cable television and broadband telephone services in several western markets.

Suzetta Sipple is a Salt Lake City-based freelance writer.