2016 Fall Fiber Update – Malad, ID.
ATC’s Fiber-To-The-Home Project Continues In Malad
As the construction season draws to a close, ATC crews diligently continue the deployment of their Fiber-To-The-Home initiative. The process began over two years ago, when ATC’s General Manager, Rich Redman, announced their quest to connect every Malad home and business to their state-of-the-art fiber network. “Fiber is the future of communications technology. Fiber delivers lightning fast Internet speeds along with reliability that is second to none”, Redman stated in a 2014 press release. The multi-million dollar investment project is far and away the most tenacious and extensive project in the company’s 87 year history.
WHY FIBER? There are many forms of high-speed Internet available on the market today. However, nothing beats fiber in terms of speed and reliability. Only five years ago, the average internet speed ranged around 3 Mbps. Today, most households require at least 15 Mbps to operate the numerous smartphones, tablets, TV’s and gaming systems inside the home. Fiber can provide steady and continuous gigabit speeds (that’s 1000 Mbps) and is the most reliable technology available.
As was originally planned, ATC has completed “Phase 1” of their fiber project; every home and business located inside Malad City limits has been offered a fiber connection. Here’s even more good news: According to a recent 2015 study done by the FTTH Council Americas, home values could increase by as much as 3.1% once connected to fiber (http://www.ftthcouncil.org/blog).
But things didn’t stop there. ATC has continued to expand their fiber network in 2016. As to date, the company has added another 450 homes and businesses to their fiber network, and plans to have nearly 1400 subscribers “turned up” to fiber by the end of the year.
WHO GETS FIBER? It is ATC’s long-term goal to offer a fiber connection to every customer in the future. However, as you can imagine, building and expanding a fiber network is laborious and extremely expensive. At this stage of our construction process, everyone living within the map boundaries below, will be offered a connection to fiber. As resources permit, our fiber network will continue to grow each and every year.
As a “Thank You” perk to those homeowners and businesses connected to fiber, ATC literally “opened the floodgates” and allowed these subscribers to receive lightning fast 50 Mbps speeds at no extra charge. ATC is honored to report the vast majority of Malad patrons are pleased with the construction process and are absolutely thrilled with the faster internet speeds.
The company would also like to express a very heartfelt THANK YOU to the city of Malad, Mid-States Consultants, and Henkles and McCoy Construction, for their partnership throughout the project.
As the Fiber-To-The-Home development in Malad nears completion, ATC is proud to report over 265 miles of fiber optic cable has been installed. That is an enormous accomplishment for such a small, rural company, especially considering that only 5% of all Idahoans are fortunate enough to have a direct fiber connection.
If you would like more information about ATC’s fiber project, contact their local office at (208) 766-2882.