Blackfoot breaking ground on fiber optic cable expansion project
ONE FIBER, smaller than a human hair inside of the visible outer coating, can carry one million different phone calls at once.
JARED JARRETT of Blackfoot Telecommunication shows the type of fiber optic cable being placed on rural roads in Thompson Falls and Trout Creek areas this year. (Carolyn Hidy photos/Clark Fork Valley Press)
Result will be faster Internet
By CAROLYN HIDY
Clark Fork Valley Press
Faster internet is on its way to rural addresses in Trout Creek and Thompson Falls.
High-speed fiber optic cables already bring state-of-the-art internet and phone service to many Blackfoot customers along Highway 200. The machines start digging this week on a $7 million project laying 154 miles of high-speed fiber optic cable to connect homes and businesses on side roads to that main line.
Blackfoot Telecommunications received the final permit from Sanders County last Friday, March 22. Contract engineers from Mid-State Consultants began marking the ground Monday. Equipment contractors from Diversified Solutions in Missoula were expected to break ground Tuesday, March 26 — starting with “directional drilling,” which drills a small tunnel underneath driveway crossings, on Wanless Lane west of Trout Creek. These will be connected by Ditch Witch between driveways.
“We’re planning to bring fiber by as many homes as possible,” said an enthusiastic Jared Jarrett, Outside Plant Manager for Blackfoot, at the annual membership meeting last Saturday.
The fiber optic cable being laid by the roadsides is made of glass and has limited flexibility. However, Blackfoot is now offering a faster flexible fiber to bring the higher speed service into the home or other building, said Jarrett.
Speeds of 40 mbs (megabits per second) will be available once the new lines are installed. Jarrett says if a customer has use for something even faster than that, they should call Blackfoot’s customer service, as they may be able to customize to meet the need.