The Richland Grant Telephone Co-operative plans to install fiber optic cables in housing systems this year to provide broadband Internet to underserved homes in the towns of Clayton, Scott, and Haney in Crawford County.
The fiber optic project aims to provide services to 393 rural homes and at least one enterprise, partly because of the $2,364 billion ARPA funding grant recently awarded by the Wisconsin Public Service Commission.
Josh Lien, RGTC operations manager, explained that ARPA funding is essential to allow telephone cooperatives to undertake the $5,667,237 project.
RGTC installed fiber optic cables for its members in 2014 and 2015. The project replaced the copper cables that have been providing DSL services to RGTC members in Crawford County since around 2000.
The new project will bring the same fiber optic system to customers who are not members of RGTC. According to Lien, those who choose to receive RGTC services under the new project will become B-level members of the Richland Grant Telephone Cooperative. Class B members will not have voting rights or obtain capital credits like other RGTC members.
However, the new RGTC Class B members will have most of the other features that current RGTC members have, including broadband Internet with speeds up to 1 GB. The price will be the same as that of existing members, which means that at the slowest available fiber speed, 30 mbps download and 15 mbps upload, it will cost $63. A higher speed can be obtained when the nominal price rises. For example, a drop of 120 mbps and a rise of 60 mbps are currently $85. In addition to broadband Internet, B-level members can also choose to receive various channels of high-definition TV, and even fixed-line telephones.
New members need to pay a one-time connection fee of $150 to bring the fiber optic cable to their residence.
However, Lien does require potential new customers to wait patiently. The operations manager emphasized that there is no need to call RGTC before installing the fiber optic cable. Lien hopes that customers will stop calling and wait for RGTC to contact them when the service is available at some point in the future.
Currently, RGTC believes that cable installation can begin next year. The cooperative has supplies on hand and trusts the contractor to install it.
Lien does admit that supply chain issues are plagued by the availability of various telecommunications equipment, just like many other things that are currently in short supply.
However, people in the field of fiber optic projects have many reasons to be hopeful. RGTC has provided services to its members for 70 years, and has provided Internet services in Crawford County for more than 20 years, including providing members with fiber optic cables to places in the past six or seven years.