AFN ISP Infostructure leaves Ashland; stays in area

Looking to own property, longtime internet service provider moves to Talent

By Robert Plain
Ashland Daily Tidings

Infostructure, one of the internet service providers utilized by the Ashland Fiber Network, has moved its office from Siskiyou Boulevard to South Pacific Highway in Talent.

Representatives of the 12-year-old ISP company and Joe Franell, executive director of city-owned AFN, said the move will not impact AFN customers who use Infostructure to connect to the Internet.

“They’re close enough that it won’t have a great effect,” Franell said. “Our Ashland customers can still walk in there and see them face to face. If they were moving to Grants Pass I might have asked them to have a satellite office.”

Scott Hansen, one of the three owners of Infostructure, said the move was instigated by a desire to own their own real estate.

“It was a much better business decision to own our building rather than lease it,” he said. “There was nothing that fit our needs in Ashland.

Infostructure’s office at 611 Siskiyou Boulevard was a converted dentist office. The business has moved to a custom-built office at 288 South Pacific Highway, between Rapp Road and Valley View.

Hansen said Infostructure will technically lease the new property from Prime Time Properties, a business set up by the owners of Infostructure, who paid $450,000 for the building.

Infostructure has approximately 2,500 Ashland customers and 1,200 on the Ashland Fiber Network, said Ryan Mallory, the general manager. The remaining 1,300 customers use dial-up service. Infostructure hosts the popular “mind.net” e-mail addresses. Mallory said approximately 6,000 people throughout the Rogue Valley utilize this e-mail service. The company also hosts several popular area Web sites, such as the Rogue Valley Independent Media Channel, the Rogue Valley Manor’s Web site, KMS Hair Care and Weisinger’s Winery. The ISP has also bought up some other smaller, local ISP companies such as KFalls.net, Medford.net and grrtech.com.

“All were Mom and Pop ISPs and Infostructure acquired them over time,” Mallory said.

While physically moving their computer servers this weekend, those who use Infostructure for e-mail did not have service from Friday night until Monday afternoon.

Dan Royce, who operates a local photography business and a greeting card business from his Ashland home, relies on his mind.net to run these businesses.

“We can live with some overnight downtime,” he said on Monday before service was restored. “But it’s pushing 48 hours now. We’re getting a little worried.”

Started by two Southern Oregon University students in 1994, Infostructure has since been sold to “a dot.com out of LA,” according to Mallory, and then back to a group of Ashlanders, including Hansen and Chad Cota, an Ashland High School football star who went on to play in the National Football League for the St. Louis Rams.

Though no longer technically hooked up to the local Ashland Fiber Network, Infostructure paid $4,200 to tie into fiber lines in Talent. This fiber connection, shared by AFN and Hunter Communications, connects AFN to the Internet at large in Medford.

Staff writer Robert Plain can be reached at 482-3456 x. 226 or bplain@dailytidings.com.