JASPER — Work is underway on the fiber network that will provide potential customers in Jasper as much as one gigabyte of high-speed Internet. And installation of the fiber-optic equipment is almost complete at the city’s nine departments.
Smithville Telecom, a subsidiary of Smithville Communications of Ellettsville, is fulfilling its agreement with the city to install fiber-optic lines throughout the city. That agreement was announced in January.
Smithville, which has its headquarters in Monroe County, has installed fiber-optic lines at eight of the city’s nine municipal locations. The final department, gas and water, will be completed in the next couple weeks once riverbank land dries out enough to set a telephone pole at the department at 825 E. Second Ave., said Dave Brodin, Smithville’s chief technology officer.
As for the network that would connect residents and businesses to the services, the design is being completed for a 14.5-mile ring of fiber that goes through the city. “That fiber will be used to connect the neighborhoods,” Brodin said.
Smithville has fiber lines that run through the center of town. Brodin said the east and west sides of the ring will rest about halfway between the center lines and city limits. The company did not want to pinpoint the exact location of the ring because thieves have been known to target the lines looking for copper.
“The benefit of the project in Jasper is the utility poles we can use,” Brodin said. “Using poles are a lot quicker. When you’re talking about an urban environment, going aerial is less disruptive.
“We use armored cable for the aerial lines. They have a strong non-metal protective coating on them to deter the squirrels that like to eat them. To the eye, it looks like any other utility cable on the pole.”
There will be some areas in which the lines will be buried underground, but those will be very few, Brodin said. “(The fiber lines) will be buried pretty deep,” he said. “But where they will be located will depend on it there are other utilities around. We don’t want to interfere with those.” Smithville is creating the plan for where the lines will be placed and is using an outside contractor, Lineal Contracting of Bedford, to perform the actual construction work. The company is also ordering the equipment necessary to complete the connections. Equipment cabinets — L-shaped boxes that are 4 by 4 feet and 3 feet tall and placed on a concrete pad — will be placed near the ring and serve as a distribution point from the ring to other distribution cabinets that will be placed in neighborhoods in the future.
There will be some areas in which the lines will be buried underground, but those will be very few, Brodin said. “(The fiber lines) will be buried pretty deep,” he said. “But where they will be located will depend on if there are other utilities around. We don’t want to interfere with those.”
Smithville is creating the plan for where the lines will be placed and is using an outside contractor, Lineal Contracting of Bedford, to perform the actual construction work. The company is also ordering the equipment necessary to complete the connections. Equipment cabinets — L-shaped boxes that are 4 by 4 feet and 3 feet tall and placed on a concrete pad — will be placed near the ring and serve as a distribution point from the ring to other distribution cabinets that will be placed in neighborhoods in the future.
Three of the four needed equipment cabinets will be able to be placed on city property, though the actual location isn’t yet known, Brodin said. A fourth cabinet will be located on private land. Once that location is determined, Smithville will obtain an easement from the landowner. Where the neighborhood cabinets will be located will depend on which neighborhoods are connected to the system first, and Smithville will work with city officials to determine those spots.
Service will leave the ring via the equipment cabinets and flow to neighborhood distribution cabinets, where it will be distributed to customers.
The ring will allow services to continue in the event that something were to happen to a customer’s fiber line. “If someone would accidentally cut a line,” Brodin said, “the service would not shut down.”
So far, the design for the west side of the ring, which will use utility poles in neighborhoods on the west side of the city, has been done. Work on that section of the line is scheduled to begin in May. Smithville will have to obtain construction permits from the city and the Indiana Department of Transportation. From there, Smithville will design the network for connecting neighborhoods to the route.
The design of the ring’s east side will be completed in that time, he said.
This fall, Smithville will release the first list of neighborhoods that can connect to the service with the goal of adding customers by the beginning of 2016.
The estimated $7 million project, which Smithville is funding, will be finished in three years. Once completed, residents will be able to become a Smithville customer and gain access to a full gigabit of fiber optic for Internet service and wireless connectivity.
Smithville does not yet have costs determined for service in Jasper.
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