For a high-speed project, the Gig-City Michigan fiber internet to homes and businesses for Coldwater is going slowly.
Coldwater Board of Public Utilities Communication Manager Pat Pool told his board Wednesday three of 15 nodes are operational with 150 customers connected. He is hoping by October the entire fiber system under construction through a contract with Aspen Wireless will be up, tested and running. The company has until February 2022 under its contract.
The bottleneck now is the end connections. CBPU Manager Jeff Budd said the utility is now doing two a day. With new employees, that number is expected to double, and soon with additional staff go to six per day.
CBPU customers who want to connect can go to the website GigCityMichigan.com, enter their address and see if service is available. Pool said installation can be scheduled over the internet.
Budd said his goal is 1,200 customers by October next year “once construction is done. We are well on our way," he said. The current connection are over 10% of that goal.
If winter is mild, crews can work underground connections. If not, frozen ground will delay those installations. Many homes built in the last two decades had conduits installed to the homes for utility connections.
Customer Service Director Jodi Shook said her staff is not pushing the service and marketing it yet. Of those connected “we have not had one cancellation. That is unheard of,” she stated.
Pool said of the $4.2 million project estimates now the project will come in under budget, projected at $900,000.
CBPU and the city decided to put in the high-speed fiber to the premises when it needed to rebuild its communication system for utility controls. That was the background to replacing the city cable system which had converted to just internet services.
Budd said sometime in the future those still on the older system will need to convert to fiber the 1-gigabyte fiber service as that system is decommissioned. No date is yet firm.
