Surfnet Communications Expands Fiber Internet Access to Remote Areas of San Luis Obispo and Santa Cruz Counties
Surfnet Communications has pledged to narrow the digital gap by providing fiber-optic internet access to areas lacking in this service. Now residents of the following communities will be privileged to utilize high-speed internet connectivity.
To gain further insight into Surfnet Communications’ efforts, I spoke with Andrew Polowy, their lead field technician. Below, he shares his experience and involvement in these projects.
Anza Vineyard Estates Anza Vineyard Estates is a newly developed residential area with 22 lots, of which three have already been constructed. Surfnet currently provides internet services to these three customers, and by the end of the year, this number could increase to 10 customers depending on the speed of construction.
“There were no other fiber options available to the residents of Anza,” said Polowy, “We were happy to be able to provide them a first-class network.”
In response, Surfnet installed a hybrid fiber system using wireless backhauls to bring bandwidth into the valley and then transferred the connection from wireless to fiber to reach all current and future customers.
Utilizing the Grant System Polowy noted that Surfnet continues to work on multiple projects in San Luis Obispo, Los Gatos, and the Santa Cruz Mountain area to secure grants for different types of infrastructure improvements.
“These grants can range from middle-mile grants, which focus on strengthening the network to provide higher speeds to customers, to end-mile grants, which target small, dense areas that lack internet access options,” Polowy stated.
Prunedale Polowy reported that Surfnet installed fiber in a Prunedale community located off Paradise Road in 2014. This was done in response to issues experienced with the community’s previous internet provider.
“This was an unserved neighborhood, so Surfnet went in and laid down fiber on Paradise and Lakeview Roads. Subsequently, it provided fiber to all of these residents,” he shared.
Shandon Surfnet intends to bring fiber internet to the town of Shandon in San Luis Obispo County, where internet access options are currently lacking. The company is presently in the process of drafting a grant proposal to extend fiber internet access to the entire area.
“It’s a farming community of ranch hands, and at the moment, we are writing grants so we can lay fiber throughout that whole community,” said Polowy.
Scotts Valley Finally, Surfnet is in the process of providing fiber-optic internet access with speeds up to 100mbps to a mobile home park in Scotts Valley.
“These are basically cluster neighborhoods that are unprovided by other ISPs, so we are going in and focusing on those small areas to be able to provide them good quality service by using the grant system,” announced Polowy.
With multiple ongoing projects and grant applications in process, Surfnet certainly has a busy year ahead.
By Aracelly Bibl