Indianapolis-based fiber optic provider Indiana Fiber Network has announced it is upgrading the Internet bandwidth service from New Lisbon Telephone Co., according to an IFN press release.
NLTC will now be able to offer high-speed Internet access to its customers in Fayette, Wayne, Union, Rush, Randolph and Delaware counties.
IFN is comprised of 20 local exchange telephone companies throughout the state and offers various services through its fiber networks. The organization says NLTC has major expansion plans.
NLTC Marketing Manager Chad Niccum said the association with IFN allows the company to lease fiber and take service into rural communities like Cambridge City.
"This latest service expansion is just one of numerous projects we are executing as part of our ongoing strategy to grow NLTC’s service footprint and service offerings," said John Greene, NLTC CEO and general manager. "Enabling Wireless and Broadband Internet service to deliver the higher speeds demanded by our customers, is a key part of those services."
Greene announced the new service to Cambridge City at a town council meeting in the summer of 2015.
The upgrade will not occur until this spring, weather permitting, Niccum said. Once the fiber is blown into the duct work, then the technicians can connect to those areas around the fiber.
"In some areas, not everyone will receive the fiber because it's very expensive to run, something like $30,000 a mile," he explained. "We are expanding into different areas and areas that are cost effective, so it's not going to be cost effective to run to single home in an area. Those customers will still be wireless unless we happen to go by their home."
At first, the company will reach the general business district in a place like Cambridge City. The fiber will run down the alleys behind the businesses on either side of U.S. 40, he said. Expansion can occur from that point outward.
Some of that initial fiber has been laid but there are still other contractors to come in an finish, Niccum said. It's just a matter of splicing everything together and getting it running. Depending on weather, it could be sooner and what the contractors' timeframe works.
NLTC's service covers over 400 square miles in Wayne, Henry, Randolph, Fayette, Delaware, Union and Rush Counties.
After its founding in 1901 and initial growth, the company received the first Rural Electrification Administration telephone loan in the United States in 1951 to convert the system to dial operation. That loan was repaid in 1975.
Growth continued with the purchase of the Millville Telephone Co. in 1952. DSL was offered to the 332 exchange in 2004. In 2006, the company installed the Nortel C1500 IP Softswitch, the first in the country to do so, which allowed voice-over IP.
Mooreland Wireless Internet was purchased in 2009 and more recently, the company purchased NewWays Wireless.
The move to fiber-to-the-home broadband services came in 2011.
In the day and age of "bigger is better," Niccum said New Lisbon Telephone Co. can compete because while the larger companies serve the more urban areas, New Lisbon specializes in picking up those customers left out by the larger companies and who cannot receive highspeed digital Internet service.
The new fiber will allow digital television where only a dish service is available in rural areas.
Niccum reported prior to working for the company, he was a customer and the service was outstanding. Businesses will be happy because they will not have the downtime that comes with many customers using coaxial service. Internet is vital to business operations.
"We've doubled the size of our business and doubled the size of our employees in the past year and a half and continue to make strides in that area trying to bring the best service possible," he said. "We've been around since 1901, maybe the oldest telephone company in the state. We're really trying to move forward with technology and bring fiber to people's homes."