REGIONAL- Deployment of the city of Cook’s new fiber optic high-speed broadband network is on track to be operational before winter sets in, and new projects proposed for multiple North Country areas could come next if their current applications for additional state funding support are approved.
Work on the Cook network being installed by Paul Bunyan Communications was originally scheduled to begin next spring, but multiple factors have allowed the company to accelerate that schedule. Crews began laying the main fiber optic cables several weeks ago, and those who subscribe to the service now will likely have high-speed broadband this fall.
“Construction takes a little while,” Paul Bunyan marketing supervisor Brian Bissonette said Tuesday. “We’re hopeful we’ll get completed by freeze out, which would be mid-October, or a little bit later, and then comes the behind-the-scenes work, which is splicing all that fiber optic together and getting the network equipment installed and tested. Once it is tested and is operational, then we’re good to go.”
When developing the initial plans for adding over 300 locations in Cook to its Gigazone network, Paul Bunyan was looking at super-fast one gigabyte download and upload speeds about ten times faster than any other competitor. But with broadband capacities increasing at a rapid pace, Bissonette said the network is now capable of far more than that.
“Our network can support internet speeds up to ten (gigabytes) and we have the service offerings up to ten gigs,” Bissonette said. “We actually just received that about a year ago, where the technology again has progressed so that we’re able to support those speeds.”
But only a small number of businesses with exceptionally large data needs would need anything approaching a 10-gig connection. Bissonette said that the typical family home with multiple simultaneous users should find Bunyan’s 250-megabyte service more than adequate to meet their needs.
Consumption of data has increased right along with internet speeds, and the COVID pandemic brought that into focus with more people working from home and students doing distance learning. Slower connections created obstacles to managing family household needs effectively. Bissonette said that the new 250-megabyte service could easily handle multiple devices connected at the same time as people stream videos, conduct business, use social media, download files, and more.
“The fiber network is capable of keeping up with these technologies where a copper network was not,” he said. “You know, Alexander Graham Bell used a copper network to deliver landline phone service. It was not really meant for the internet. The fiber optics network is totally capable of handling these things because it’s been built for it, and we don’t have to worry about replacing it in five or ten years because it’s obsolete.”
Bissonette said that potential Cook customers should look at how they use the internet now and what they may anticipate needing in the future to decide if the super-fast broadband network is right for them.
“We get a lot of people who obviously don’t have it that are just begging us to bring it to them because they know why they need it and what they need it for,” he said. “But they also think that everybody’s like them, and there’s a lot of people who don’t use the internet at all, because they escaped to our region for that very reason. It all depends on the person and what they’re looking for. Most people make the switch because it makes their experience so much more enjoyable and easy.”
With the anticipated startup of the system before winter, the best time to sign up for the service is now, Bissonette said.
“We really need to stress that if you want the service, you need to sign up while construction is going on, so we can bring it up to your house,” he said. “If you sign up over the winter, we’ll come back and put it in, but we’re going to have to wait until the summertime.”
Bissonette noted that those who wait until the spring to sign up could possibly experience an additional delay because crews will be working on other construction projects. Customers should call 888-586-3100 for more information on plans, pricing, and to sign up.
In the works
The nearly $700,000 Cook system would not have been possible without a Border-to-Border broadband grant from the state of Minnesota. The city of Cook also committed $8,000 to the project, and Paul Bunyan Communications is paying the balance.
The Border-to-Border program is intended to bring broadband service to unserved and underserved areas of the state, which includes a broad swath of rural Minnesota. The availability of state money for development in some areas, including the North County, has been limited up until now because they had previously been designated for federal broadband funding through the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Wanting to avoid duplication, those areas weren’t eligible for Border-to-Border funds.
Nevada-based LTD Communications won $311 million in federal development funds for Minnesota in 2020, covering a large number of tracts in the North Country and effectively blocking other broadband providers who would find the development costs prohibitive without access to either federal or state funds.
But as LTD Communications began to default on its obligations in other states and its ability to deploy fiber optic networks became doubtful, the Minnesota Office of Broadband Development (MBD) decided to allow companies to apply for Border-to-Border funds for federal tracts on a contingency basis. The intent was to minimize the delay in deploying high-speed broadband where it was needed should LTD’s long-form application for FCC funds be denied.
That contingency became reality last month when the FCC rejected LTD’s application, and two regional internet providers have funding proposals already submitted to MBD for consideration.
One of those is the nation’s eighth largest internet provider, Frontier Communications, which already provides some services in the North Country that qualify as “high speed” broadband under the FCC’s 100 megabyte down, 25 megabyte up definition.
Frontier has proposed two-gig service deployment for the areas of Ely, Tower, and Crane Lake, including areas formerly designated for LTD.
A proposal for deploying high-speed broadband in the Eagles Nest area, submitted by Ely-based Treehouse Broadband, is also under consideration for Border-to-Border funding.
An MBD spokesperson said that the applications are not available for public review, so specifics regarding the proposals aren’t available. However, maps of the proposed service areas are available through MBD’s website. The Timberjay will continue to follow these proposals and provide updates as more information becomes available.