Installation of fiber optics for Lincoln Telephone Co. service area underway

The three-year project to install fiber optic lines to all the premises within the Lincoln Telephone Company's service area got underway this month, with work in the Lincoln Valley delayed for almost a month due to high water.

The wet conditions here prompted the company to begin work in the Canyon Creek area, with a crew beginning to work its way up Marsh Creek toward Lincoln last Thursday.

"If they get up there and the snow's gone they'll just keep coming," Aaron Daniel, the Lincoln Telephone Company's assistant general manager, said.

Last week, drill crews with VECI Utility Service out of Missoula, got to work in town, boring conduit channels near existing utility lines along B Street in Lincoln.

Daniel said B Street is probably the most congested spot they will face in town, but added the crews working there are just a fraction of what people should expect to see in Lincoln over the summer. The teams working near Canyon Creek are set to arrive in Lincoln after they finish up with their work there.

"They have three drop crews doing drops into yards, they have three bore crews doing a lot of boring; they have additional crews going behind the bore crews, blowing the fiber in and they have one more crew that ... brings it to a fiber jack inside the house," he said.

Once they all arrive here and set to work residents may want to re-route around construction areas, but Daniel said the contractor will try to keep all the streets open regardless."That's kind of part of the deal. They've been pretty good about it, but B Street has been busy," he said. "So far people haven't had a problem with it. I think everybody's ready for fiber and they understand its gonna take some construction."

Daniel said the plans for this year's phase of construction call for homes in town to see fiber optic installed over the summer. The Stemple area, extending over Poorman Creek and down Marsh and Prickly Pear Creeks to the office at Canyon Creek, are also slated for installation this year, as are the Gehring tract subdivision and the Herrin Lakes area south of town.

"Next year we'll be doing east and west of Lincoln, finishing them all the way up. The following year we'll finish up Canyon Creek," he said.

Lincoln Telephone had tentatively planned to begin the fiber-to-premise project in 2017 but the USDA's Rural Utility Service Loan process that's funding the construction wasn't completed until late last fall.

Although the fiber optics will be new to most of the service area, Daniel said some subdivisions around Lincoln have had it for several years, and the project got a boost in 2013 when the company installed 17 miles of conduit from Highway 279 to the office in Lincoln ahead of 2014's Highway 200 resurfacing project.

"The stuff that's in the highway right of way is already done. We've just got to blow fiber through the conduit," he said.

It may take some time to get every premise in the service area hooked up, however, because of the difficulty in contacting everyone when they're home. "We've got a lot of summer people, so that's going to take a little longer," Daniel said.

He credited Shanda Richards and Teresa Brown with the job they've been doing in coordinating with property owners ahead of time.

When all the old copper line has finally been replaced with fiber optic, Daniels said customers should notice more clarity in their telephone lines and better internet service.

"It's going to give everybody an equal cut of whatever they want for service," he said. "Really its unlimited. We might even come up with some different packages for people on the internet side of it."

Last fall, while discussing the USDA funding with the BVD, Lincoln Telephone Company Manager Ken Lumpkin noted the improved internet performance will help anyone in the Lincoln area who works from home or telecommutes.