Fiber-optic project sets spring date

SANDPOINT — The road to the broadband Internet superhighway in Bonner County appears clear for the projected North Shore Fiber Optic Alliance ground-breaking in spring.

Karl Dye, executive director of the Bonner County Economic Development Corporation said that the $14 million project is going according to plan. At this point, the BCEDC is negotiating with a handful of companies to act as an anchor service provider, a process that it hopes to complete by January. After finalizing all funding sources in February, the organization hopes to start actual construction after the snow clears.

“We’re still on track and still charging forward to that spring groundbreaking,” Dye said.

That’s good news for Bonner County residents who hope the project eventually broadens the Internet service provider market in North Idaho.

Local resident William Luce said that he’s had a difficult time acquiring acceptable Internet service since he and his wife moved to Idaho seven months ago.

According to Luce, he came to regret a two-year contract he set up with a satellite Internet provider.

“It was taking me six minutes just to log into my e-mail,” he said. “So I called them up and told them, ‘Cancel my service. I don’t want you.’”

Luce said the company informed him he’d be charged a $200 termination fee for early cancellation.

“I told them, ‘I don’t care. I still don’t want you,’” he said.

But that wasn’t the end of Luce’s troubles. He said the company then informed him that he’d have to ship back equipment located on the snow-covered roof of his house or face another $300 fine.

“I couldn’t believe that they wouldn’t send someone out to pick up the equipment themselves,” he said.

Luce and his wife currently use DSL, but he also knows individuals who don’t have access to that service.

Dye understands the irritation at that lack of options.

“One of the reasons we’ve gotten involved with this project is that many of our own members were having big problems with accessing acceptable Internet service here,” Dye said. “We completely understand the frustrations.”

Assuming they fall in NSFOA’s initial service area, residents will have the opportunity to jump on the network with no hook-up charges, Dye said. The NSFOA plans to offer competitively priced fiber-to-the-home connections as a means of kick-starting the service.  

The project will be financed through a series of bonds. Originating from the Panhandle Area Council, the serviced cities of Dover, Sandpoint, Ponderay and Kootenai will relay the bonds to the anchor service provider.

 As money from customers begins flowing through the system, revenue will trickle right back to PAC, Dye said.

“The biggest quality we’re looking for in an anchor service provider right now is a bond guarantee,” he added.

The existence of a fiber optic network in Bonner County will open the area up to a new range of services. Subscribers will have access to greater bandwidth and multimedia services.

For example, the city will potentially be able to stream all its important meetings to the Internet for residents to access from home.

Fiber optics also open up cloud computing. Regarded by many experts as the future of computing, the system allows software access and processing to occur remotely by streaming the data over a broadband connection.

“it’s going to matter less what’s inside your computer and more what it can access,” Dye said at the October Economic Development Conference. “This is going to be a key tool for small businesses.”