Broadband goes to fiber optics

Broadband customers throughout northwest Kansas are being switched over on a regular basis to the new fiber optic network that is at the core of a massive three-year project undertaken by Rural Telephone.

Already, more than 1,800 customers in nearly a dozen northwest Kansas exchanges have been "cut over," according to Larry Sevier, Rural's CEO and general manager. Part of a $101 million project, Rural Telephone, based in Lenora, is rushing headlong into converting 21 communities in 11 northwest Kansas counties to high-speed broadband. Most of that will be through fiber optic cable -- laid all the way to a customer's home, generally known as fiber to the premises. There also have been instances of people being switched from simple dial-up Internet to WiMax, high-speed wireless technology. The project is right on schedule, Sevier said. Rural was the first Recovery Act broadband project selected in the nation and is the first to connect customers. The new technology has been made available in cities including Almena, Athol, Collyer, Damar, Gove, Hill City, Bogue, Long Island, Morland, Norcatur, Phillipsburg and Hoxie. Work also is under way in Palco and in rural areas near Stockton and Plainville.