Internet is no longer a utility; it is an essential for all. The internet is now interconnected with homes and cars rather than just phones and computers. Surf Broadband Solutions is bringing the town of Wanatah broadband internet so that the town’s citizens may better utilize the technology within their homes and businesses. The company hosted a celebration at Wanatah’s Town Hall Thursday afternoon to highlight the work that has been done in the first of its five phases.
“What we’ve learned through recent events is that people rely on the internet, that broadband has become a necessity not just a luxury,” Community Liaison and Partner Manager for Surf, Bill Haughee, said. “Broadband is defined by the Federal Communications Commission as the ability to transmit 25 megabits up to the internet and get three megabits down.”
“Up” in this sense means upload speed, while “down” refers to download speed. This speed is measured by megabits per second (Mbps).
The current broadband requirement for broadband is 25 Mbps when uploading and 3 Mbps when downloading.
“What we find is that this is not serving us that well today,” Haughee said. “This is because of things like Zoom Conferences where we actually need that upload speed. So there is talk in Congress right now about redefining broadband requirements to 100 megabits, both ways.”
While Congress might want 100 Mbps for the internet to be labeled broadband, Surf has another definition. They will use fiberoptic cables to make upload and download speeds 1,000 Mbps, an impressive, and unheard-of statistic for the town.
Fiber is buried beneath the soil and connects directly to homes. They are protected by orange PVC pipes that will be seen throughout Wanatah as Surf continues construction.
“This took a lot of cooperation, which is why we are so thankful and happy to be with the town,” said Haughee. “As you drive into town now you see orange pipes sticking up at pretty regular intervals; that’s our conduit. That’s our first step which will continue for the next few weeks. After that, the conduit has to be joined, then fiberoptic cable must be blown in and spliced, so there is still a month or two worth of work to get that infrastructure into place.”
Families often have many individuals on the internet at the same time. Under one roof, parents can be streaming or paying bills while their children play video games or watch YouTube. With broadband, doing all of these things at once becomes possible.
“What this means for people in Wanatah is low-cost broadband, with very high-speed access,” Haughee said.
Students and families were required to learn and work from homes last year, and to some, this was entirely inaccessible. Surf Broadband Solutions is not only bringing frivolities such as podcasts and online shopping, they are bringing necessities for life in the internet age.
To sign up for home or business service, visit www.iwantfiber.today.
To learn more about Surf Broadband Solutions, visit https://www.surfbroadband.com/.
