By JONATHAN SNYDER
Downtown Markle will have new fiber-optic cables set underground, providing a more stable option for the town. The digging process will hopefully begin in April, according to Citizens Telephone Corporation General Manager Neil Laymon.
Through the outskirts of Markle, TWN Communications in partnership with Heartland REMC, has provided internet service since late 2019. While TWN’s service has been good, customers who were unable to get TWN have relied on service from either Fiberhawk or Frontier Internet.
“It was just spotty,” said Markle Operations Manager Mike Grant, “There are some areas that might get decent speeds, they might get 40 to 50 megabits per second, there are others that might only get two — and that could be within the same block.”
Seeing the need, Citizens out of Warren decided to add Markle to their list of fiber-optic installed areas. They have put cable in Lancaster, Mount Etna and Majenica, all in Huntington County.
“REMC has done a lot of fiber in the county so we’re kind of looking to go where they haven’t gone,” said Laymon. “So we’ve been looking at Markle for a while on and off and … Grant did call me at some point and said, ‘Have you guys thought about this?’”
The project is expected to cost Citizens $1.5 million. Markle did try for a grant to bring the cost down, but their application was denied because of the other services in the area.
“The grant system works on a point system,” said Laymon. “And since they (Markle) already had some form of service, you don’t get very many points.”
“It was difficult unless you could show that pretty much the whole area was really slow,” said Grant. “Because we had areas that had good service it dropped our point value down significantly.”
Laymon hopes that the project will be completed by July or August. Laymon stated that one crew could connect four or five in one day, but Citizens could have two crews working to speed the process up.
Citizens will use directional boring to put the fiber-optic cables underground. This method will avoid road closures and keep the ground from being disturbed.
“You don’t have to chop up road,” said Laymon. “(There’s) no pavement and no sidewalk work.”
Prices start at $48 monthly for 50 megabits per second speed for internet only. Prices increase along with the speeds, with the max speed being one gigabit per second at $120 monthly. There are also options for landline phone service only and bundle packages.
jonathan@news-banner.com
