HUNTINGBURG — High speed fiber broadband service is available to most of the city now, and will be available to all by the end of May.
In addition, free wifi service will be coming to downtown Fourth Street in the near future, since the Huntingburg Common Council agreed to work with Perry Spencer Communications to get the service installed.
The fiber service, High-Speed Huntingburg Fiber Broadband, will be completed by the end of May, which is ahead of schedule, PSC President and CEO Jim Dauby told the council Tuesday. He added that the cost to the company will be less than the $3 million projected.
“What you have here in Huntingburg is 100 percent fiber optic fed network,” he said. “It is important today. But it is really going to be important in the future and to the future demands, from bandwidth standpoint and whatever you can deliver over that network.”
The project, which started in 2016, was done in three phases. The first phase, installing lines from the center of the city to the northwest, and the second phase, covering the area east of phase one, have been completed. The company is working on the final phase, which is installing lines in the southern part of the city. PSC also has an office at Fourth Street and U.S. 231, which opened last July.
Dauby said that customers living in the first two phases are connected to the service, and those in the third phase will be when the work is finished.
With the project nearing completion, Dave Buse of PSC and Spinner talked to the council about offering open wifi service to those who are in the Fourth Street area. The company does this at League Stadium as well as places in Ferdinand and Jasper, Buse said.
To offer the service, three access points would be installed along the downtown street: on the Current Blend building near Market Street Park, on PSC’s office building and on a utility pole along the street.
If the city could cover the $7,000 installation cost, PSC will provide the service at no cost, Buse explained. The city council gave Spinner permission to negotiate a contract to get the service.
Dauby said that the network will be an asset to Huntingburg in many ways. “It’s going to benefit your healthcare. It’s going to benefit your schools. It’s going to benefit your government.”
Mayor Denny Spinner agreed.
“One of the biggest issues in rural Indiana is connectivity. We don’t have it completely solved, but through this partnership, we’ve got a leg up on the situation. Many rural communities in this state do not have this as a resource.”