Blackfoot Communications lays underground fiber optic cables
Workers from Blackfoot Communications unwind some of the miles of new 5G fiber optic underground lines that are replacing old copper wire lines to accommodate increased data and speed capabilities for area computer users throughout the area. (Chuck Bandel/VP-MI)
Infrastructure changes other than highways and bridge repair and building are underway throughout Sanders County and western Montana.
As has been evident throughout most of the past two years, utility crews have been busy updating and remaking power and data systems that promise to propel the area into the 21st century in a big way.
Earlier this year crews from Northwestern Energy criss-crossed the Plains area using “boom lifts” and other high-reach machinery to install updates to a large portion of the region’s overhead power lines.
And construction of the new sewer lagoons northeast of Plains is also progressing on schedule as workers build new lagoons and install new sewer pipes to alleviate the threat of an environmental nightmare potentially caused by the old lagoons that were in danger of eroding and spilling into the Clark Fork River.
The latest sign of infrastructure changes is recent activity throughout the area to replace and/or install new, high-capacity underground optic fiber cables that will replace aging copper wire cables and make way for such data upgrades as 5G, a computer-related program that offers increased data capabilities at faster speeds.
The goal with the fiber optics work, according to a statement on the company’s website by Blackfoot Communications CEO Jason Williams, is to bring the increased speed and computing capacity associated with 5G to every home and business in the company’s service area.
“In 2016 we began an extensive, multi-year, multi-million dollar project to replace aging copper portions of our network with fiber optics,” the statement reads. “Fiber-based optics will ensure the long-term availability of high speed broadband, voice and other advanced services for decades to come”.
Williams said finishing the ambitious project is expected to take up to 15 years to complete and cost as much as $200 million. Blackfoot has recently received an increase in the amount of federal Universal Service funding it receives, an amount that “while not nearly enough to replace all of our existing copper network is enough for us to get started on the vision of bringing fiber optics” to this area. To accomplish this goal, crews from Blackfoot have been using high-tech looking trenching equipment to dig channels for the new cable, which has become a familiar site on streets and corners throughout the region.
The miles of cable involved is delivered on large wooden spools, which have become popular in their own right for use as outdoor tables and platforms.
Once the main lines are in the ground, crews will begin the arduous task of running branch cables line to all of Blackfoot’s existing and new accounts throughout this area.
Installation of the 5G networks has become a major part of planned infrastructure updates nationwide, with the goal of allowing increased and better access and speed for all customers, with rural accounts very much in the mix.
Work in the Plains area began last year, while similar efforts got underway in Thompson Falls in 2020.