Surfnet Update on High-Speed Fiber Upgrades — As Featured in Mountain Network News
I’d like give an update on Surfnet’s fiber project to deliver high-speed broadband connections in our local mountain community. We’re making great progress already, just a few weeks after winning a $10 million grant from the California Public Utilities Commission.
The project aims to help residents and businesses in rural, mountain communities get reliable access to high-speed internet service. It’s no small task to build new infrastructure in the Santa Cruz Mountains. As you all know, our unique and beautiful mountain environment is prone to wildfires, snow, mudslides and all of Mother Nature’s occasional fury.
The planning for build-out is complicated. To meet the challenge, we’re using our unique experience as a local provider – we know these mountains well. A critical first step is to confirm the location and condition of individual utility poles that will be used to deliver high-speed internet service. We’ll be using utility poles to carry fiber cable along roadways and occasionally across rough, roadless areas.
In some places, utility poles are located on private property. When this is the case, Surfnet provides property owners a courtesy notice of the need to access a utility pole. As a “certificated and regulated competitive service provider,” licensed by the Public Utilities Commission, Surfnet is granted right-of-way authority to access poles that will be used to support our fiber project.
Local residents are encouraged to call us to find out if they live in areas that are next in line for fiber upgrades. The Surfnet website has been updated with information about fiber service, including newly updated maps.
For existing Surfnet customers who are not within the current upgrade areas, there may be wireless service upgrades available to increase internet speed. Please call us to learn more.
Surfnet is actively pursuing new grants that will help fund further fiber expansion. Hopefully there will be more good news to report soon. In the meantime, learn more at www.surfnetc.com or call 831-439-7873 ext. 77.
This article was originally published in Mountain Network News. Reposted here with permission from the author, Ken Nye, Surfnet’s Chief Operating Officer.