LONGMONT, CO – Longmont Power & Communications has teamed up with Netflix, allowing the city’s NextLight fiber-optic network to have more streamlined access to the world’s leading internet TV network.

The agreement allows LPC to host Netflix Open Connect Appliances (OCAs) – specialized servers that will locally cache many of the most popular Netflix titles for its NextLight customers; the content is updated daily. The result, LPC spokesman Scott Rochat said, will be to significantly reduce the bandwidth on the system and further improve a broadband fiber-optic network that has already been named one of the country’s fastest ISPs.

“Nearly all of our residential customers have gigabit connections, and Netflix is one of the most popular ways to use a high-speed connection,” Rochat said. “By offloading that high volume of traffic onto the Netflix appliance, we increase the efficiency of our network and provide the best possible experience for our users.”

LPC’s hosting of the Netflix OCAs means that content is geographically closer to NextLight customers, decreasing the amount of congestion that might interfere with loading and playing a video. How much improvement an individual customer sees, Rochat said, will depend on various factors, including the viewing device used by that customer.

“We’re always looking for new ways to make NextLight a more valuable asset to the community,” he said. “If that value also happens to make ‘movie night’ a little easier, so much the better.”

About Longmont Power & Communications

Longmont Power & Communications is a community-owned, non-profit electric and broadband services utility that operates under the direction of Longmont City Council. Established in 1912, our goal is to deliver electric and communications services that provide outstanding value to our customer–owners. In 2014, we began to build and operate the NextLight fiber-optic broadband system, which is making Longmont the first “gigabit city” in Colorado. To learn more, visit www.LongmontColorado.gov/lpc.