Slow road for fast internet
Illistration from Syringa Networks Starting at the Central Office in Boise, Syringa’s network stretches to North Idaho via access points in Washington. If the line through the Silver Valley is laid, a connection can be made with Missoula, Mont.
Representatives from Syringa Networks met with the Silver Valley Kiwanis on Tuesday at Noah’s in Kellogg to discuss their ongoing attempt at bringing fiber optic & broadband internet into the Silver Valley.
Syringa Senior account manager Bill Coale and account executive Valerie Cramer were on hand to explain their company’s current plans and to hopefully pique the interest of the Silver Valley community leaders.
Coale first talked about the company’s background, including their 15 year history of working with companies like Verizon, Simplot, and the Idaho State Police before moving onto discussing their current plans.
“We are currently getting ready to install a fiber network along I-90, between Liberty Lake and Coeur d’Alene,” Coale said. “People are likely to see us working on I-90 by the springtime.”
That is currently as far as the company plans on going, but they hope to see enough interest from the local businesses in Shoshone County to keep the line going on down I-90 to Missoula.
From there, they would plan to go south into southeastern Idaho to connect their network.
Coale didn’t have a figure off the top of his head as to what the dollar amount would be to get the project moving, but he was very clear that the valley’s bigger businesses would need to be on board.
“We would need to see interest from the hospital, the schools, Silver Mountain, Dave Smith, the local mines, you know the elephants of the area,” Coale said.
One of the biggest issues that have people so interested in the services that Syringa offers is the concept of bringing high-speed/ broadband internet to the local residents of Shoshone County, but there is a catch for this to happen.
“We don’t do residential services,” Coale said, “we only do business. Now that’s not saying we can’t provide our business to the local providers who can then turn around and sell it to residents though.”
This would be an interesting development as Suddenlink and Frontier Communications have had the lion’s share of the internet business here for the better part of the new millennium. If this were to happen, many individuals in the community who have been praying for faster internet speeds over the years would rejoice.
Both Suddenlink and Frontier representatives could not be reached to comment on the subject at this time, but should Syringa bring their service through the area, the two providers would be faced with a decision to tap in or not to tap into the new line.
One of the biggest hurdles that will also need to be jumped is the setting up of a central office and access point (or more popularly referred to as a hub), as well as the heavy cost for setting up such a location.
These hubs are where the installation and use of the fiber optic lines gets tricky and expensive.
“These buildings must be bought,” Coale said, “once you get the equipment inside of them you don’t want to move it. The equipment for the hub cost $5-6 million, which doesn’t include the building.”
Should enough of the local businesses express their interest and the funds for such an expensive addition be raised, Coale believes they could be working in the Silver Valley by next summer, if not the end of this summer.