The Town of Highlands is one step closer to broadband internet.
Information Technology director Matt Shuler gave an update on the town’s construction of fiber optic cables that will enable broadband internet in the town.
“We are getting very close to the end,” Shuler said. “One section we are close to being done is the splicing. The total splicing that we have done is 7700 fibers that are in the head end. Of those, there are 20,000 splices that need to be made. The fiber has to be spliced again and again and again until it is at its final destination. As of the end of Thursday, there are only 180 splices left. Some of those are repairs, but the majority of all of the construction splicing is now completed.”
Shuler said they are expected to finish splicing the cables by Friday of this week.
“That is all with the splicing, but after that there are about 35 anchors left to be installed,” Shuler said. “Our engineer actually went back and told them to put a few more in. He gave them a list of about 180 at the end of the project and now they have about 35 left to go. The projected date to be completed is the end of July.”
As far as the financial side of things, Shuler said there are no projected overages to the town.
Shuler said most of the questions he receives is when will the internet start.
“We will have a meeting with Hotwire next week to have a final discussion,” Shuler said. “We have had a few items that are left that we feel are very minute items. We are pushing to bring back the items to the board in the August meeting for them to review.”
A ballpark time frame for the internet, according to Shuler is three months from the contract signature.
“We have fiber, but they will have to bring in the electronic equipment,” Shuler said. “Their estimate is around three months. During that time while they are getting things set up, folks will be able to sign up and be ready for service.”
In November 2020, following a closed session that lasted close to an hour, the board reemerged into public session online via Zoom and mayor Patrick Taylor called for a motion regarding the selection of a network administrator and the entry into contract negotiations.
The board’s choices were down to two companies – Hotwire and Balsam West, with the former getting the nod by a 4-1 vote. Commissioner Marc Hehn provided the dissenting vote but offered no explanation for his choice.
Services offered include internet up to 10 gigabytes per second for residential customers along with voice, television, home automation and home security. As part of Hotwire’s proposal, they anticipated remitting $10.2 million over the next 25 years to the Town of Highlands.
An agreement was reached earlier in 2020 with Wide Open Networks to operate the town’s network, but that deal fell apart during the contract negotiations stage and forced the town to review other options. After putting out a request for proposals in August, the board received three proposals before narrowing the choices to Hotwire and Balsam West.
The town eventually chose Hotwire over Balsam West.
By Christopher Smith