Big River Communications has broken ground on its new fiber optic network to provide high-speed internet service in Poplar Bluff, company President Kevin Cantwell said Tuesday while describing the faster connection as “the future for all of us to be successful.”
“It’s exciting. We’re not only delivering the network of the future, but it’s going to be priced so it’s affordable,” Cantwell told city officials and others gathered for a celebration Tuesday.
Service up to 10 gigabits will be available to businesses.
Dubbed “Circle Fiber,” the network, Cantwell said, is expected to take about one year to build out.
“This didn’t happen overnight. We’ve been planning for probably the last seven or eight months,” Cantwell explained.
The Poplar Bluff service area will be part of a much larger overall network, Cantwell said.
“We started in Jackson and we’re rolling into Cape and Poplar Bluff,” he said. “Our overall picture is to go from Crystal City down to Poplar Bluff and over to Sikeston and back up. I call that our golden triangle.”
The overall project, he estimates, will take five years to complete.
The city of Poplar Bluff will be divided into 17 zones, Cantwell said, each serving between 600 and 720 customers, though the zones have not been determined yet and will be based on early demand.
“We will add customers as we go through the process, so when we turn on our first zone, those customers will be up and running,” Cantwell said.
Inside the city limits, said Spectrum Engineering’s Rod Siberg, who is helping to design the network, “it’s close to 168 miles” of fiber line to be installed.
“Other areas outside the city limits will be in phase 2,” Siberg said.
New fiber optic lines will be installed on existing poles, Cantwell noted, though some will be buried when conditions warrant.
Circle Fiber will be sending notifications to residents when crews will be installing lines in their area, Cantwell said, to notify them of what they will be seeing and to offer the new service.
“We’ll start to send out correspondence into the neighborhoods we go into,” he said. “The first one always says ‘pardon our dust.’”
Residents will be offered the opportunity to have the fiber optic connection installed on their house, even if they choose not to purchase internet service from Circle Fiber, Cantwell said.
“I still recommend you get a fiber connection to your house,” he said. “It will (be a) cost, but that will be credited back if you sign up for service.”
Even without signing up for service, Cantwell said, studies have shown “having a fiber connection to your house adds a 3.1% increase in the value to your house.”
Residents also can go to www.circlefiber.com.
“They can put in their name and address to let us know where they are,” Cantwell said.
Cape Electrical Supply is supplying a lot of the materials, Cantwell said, to “keep things local.”
“We put out a national search for building materials, and they are right in our backyard,” he added.
Circle Fiber also plans to hire seven to eight employees, to be based out of Poplar Bluff.
“I need account executives, I need installers, and I need some service technicians,” Cantwell said.
Citing a continuing investment in the city, Cantwell said, Circle Fiber will be opening a retail store location in Poplar Bluff as well, once the network is completed.
“We’re committed to the community,” he said.
“It’s exciting, and it’s exciting to have options,” said Greater Poplar Bluff Area Chamber of Commerce President Steve Halter of the new network’s potential. “This is the direction we need to go.”
A big priority for the region, Halter said, “is broadband, and I’m anxious to see them go to the next phase, which expands it outside the city, because I think that’s where our biggest need is.
“I think we spent a lot of smart time and money investing in our highways, and I’m glad to see the private sector investing in this.”