A super high-speed Internet connection doesn't just make posting photos on Myspace.com faster or Web surfing easier, it can help doctors diagnose strokes without ever leaving their homes and students learn to fly planes on their own computers.

And it's starting to happen in Provo.

Public Affairs Television came from its base in New York to visit the Provo Airport last week to film the Utah Valley State College Aviation Science Department's flight simulator for a national series on faster Internet connections.

The simulator allows an instructor to teach up to 40 students at a time on the finer points of flying without ever seeing their faces. Provo's fiber-optic Internet connection allows the students to remain at home on their computers while the instructor acts as a "co-pilot," teaching them proper flying technique from the airport's system in real time.

"On the Internet, speed is power," said Rick Vincent, associate chairman of Aviation Science. "We're running about 10 megabits per second compared to the 800 kilobytes in New York."

Eight hundred kilobytes is equal to about 1.6 megabits, significantly less than what the iProvo system can offer.

Rick Karr, correspondent and writer for Public Affairs Television, said PBS's series "Moyers on America 2006" is looking at why the Internet in most of the United States is so slow when the rest of the world is accelerating at incredible speeds.

He said the faster Internet connection, which can be used by doctors to diagnose a stroke visually using a Web cam from home, seems so far in the future to most Americans, but is available today.

He decided to feature Provo on the television program because the city-owned fiber-optic network, iProvo, allows for the faster Internet connection that cable providers promised but never delivered, Karr said.

"The Internet works like I-15; two lanes and a carpool lane. The cable companies want to make the carpool lane the fast lane but because it's only one lane they want to charge people extra to use it because they couldn't handle all the traffic if everyone used it," Karr said.

Provo Mayor Lewis Billings wasn't surprised iProvo is being featured because civic leaders from all over the world are interested in getting a faster connection much like the iProvo system.

"It's really amazing the kind of things that start to happen once you get the technology in place," Billings said, but it's not without it's problems.

Mary DeLaMare-Schaefer, marketing and customer relations manager for iProvo, said iProvo's first Internet service provider, HomeNet Communications Inc., had financing issues and went bankrupt.

"That had a big impact and put us a year behind," DeLaMare-Schaefer said. "They were our only retailer and we were very dependent on them but the resolution was that we found two new companies, Veracity and MSTAR."

Billings said the fiber-optic network has cost $33 million to connect the entire city and has had to endure attacks from local providers, such as Comcast and Qwest Communications, who insist the system is a drain on tax funds.

"I have a strong feeling that if the private sector doesn't do it, then government should," Billings said. "This is one of those cases where the private sector was not willing to do it and so we have the public sector stepping up and doing it."

Vince Hancock, a Qwest spokesman, said fiber is only one solution. Qwest has laid 2,800 miles of fiber-optic cables -- but only in areas where it will be cost effective.

"These companies are risky schemes that are economically unviable," Hancock said. "We think it is impractical for the government to spend taxpayers' dollars when it won't pay off."

Hancock said he wonders when iProvo will begin to be profitable for the city.

In March the Provo Municipal Council approved a $980,000 loan to make the first payment on the $39.5 million bond the city took out to pay for building the fiber-optic network. The 2006-2007 budget also includes a $2.1 million loan to continue making payments on the bond. The council this month also agreed to pay more than $600,000 of the city's new investment fund to buy set-top boxes, which every television getting video service from iProvo needs. The city will then lease the boxes to MSTAR and Veracity, which will then charge a monthly rental fee to all subscribers who have one.

But city officials say the system's financial outlook will change as more and more subscribers join, which is something that's happening with MSTAR and Veracity.

Councilwoman Cynthia Dayton has said she estimates that the next year will show if iProvo is a viable project, since is almost finished, the service providers are established and the march to 10,000 subscribers has begun.

Even with its problems, Provo residents are getting something with iProvo much of the country is not.

"At my home in New York, I'm paying almost twice as much for one-tenth the service," Karr said. "One megabit might be a lot of power but that is where a lot of America is stuck at."

The one hour series is scheduled to run Oct. 11 and will also feature footage from Louisiana, New Jersey, and Washington.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.