Mike Wolanin | The Republic Dave Brodin, from left, with Hoosier Fiber Networks, Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop, Steve Milton, with GigabitNow, and Randy Allman, with the Lincoln Central Neighborhood Family Center, take part in a press conference on the progress of fiber internet service by Hoosier Fiber Networks and GigabitNow at Columbus City Hall in Columbus, Ind., Wednesday, June 14, 2023.
More than 450 homes in Columbus now have the ability to connect to high-speed internet service with a new provider, and it’s expected that another 1,200 will be added to that number by the end of the summer.
City officials and representatives from Hoosier Fiber Networks and GigabitNow announced the news Wednesday in a press conference at Columbus City Hall. According to Mayor Jim Lienhoop, the first batch of homes are located in the “big block” area of downtown, which runs from city hall to 25th Street and Washington Street to Central Avenue.
“If you haven’t noticed, there are some gophers in Columbus that are putting orange fiber optic cable casing, if that’s the way you say it, throughout our community in anticipation of installing a current fiber optic solution for us,” he said.
He added that the project is expected to complete at the end of 2024.
Columbus residents can sign up for service at gigabitnow.com/Columbus and can also use the site to access a map that shows when service is expected to be available at their address. According to Dave Brodin, CEO of Hoosier Fiber Networks, the map will be updated in the coming weeks due to some scheduling changes.
“This is a construction project, and some is above ground, some is underground,” he said. “There’s often lots of surprises along the way, so it’s always possible that schedules have to change. So even if I were to say, these are the neighborhoods or areas that are at the end of the project, it’s possible those move up further in the project for various reasons. So really, the best indication of when an area’s going to be complete is when you start seeing shovels in the ground and holes being dug, then you know that that area is underway.”
Meridiam Infrastructure North America Corp. has agreed to create a fiber network that spans Columbus, Bartholomew County, Bloomington and Shelbyville. Hoosier Fiber Networks is the fiber network utility provider for this system, and GigabitNow, which is a division of IsoFusion, will be the initial internet service provider.
In the summer of 2022, Columbus City Council approved a tax abatement for Hoosier Networks LLC that will save the company 95% on personal property taxes every year for 20 years on $28 million in new equipment for the fiber-to-premise project. The city will also use some of Columbus’ American Rescue Plan funds to help cover the cost of connection for low-income residents.
“Columbus’ digital access program will bring the power of fiber internet connectivity to Columbus residents regardless of income level,” said Dion Newton, Digital Equity Manager, Hoosier Fiber Networks. “In addition to laying fiber in communities throughout Columbus, the City and Hoosier Fiber Networks will connect qualifying low-income residents to service and equipment subsidies and with digital literacy programs to facilitate online work and job searches, education and health care.”
GigabitNow will also offer a special $30 per month plan for low-income individuals, meaning that those who qualify for both the plan and the Federal Communications Commission’s Affordable Connectivity Program will be able to receive service for free. This plan will provide symmetrical speeds of at least 250 megabits per second, officials said in a release.
According to the company’s website, other residential plans range from about $50 to $200 per month, depending on speed. There is currently a special on 2-gigabit speed, with GigabitNow offering a price of $70 per month for the first two years (the same price as its 1-gigabit plan) and $90 per month thereafter. Business plans are also available.
Randy Allman, executive director of the Lincoln-Central Neighborhood Family Center, said that access to affordable high-speed internet will help level the playing field between individuals on different ends of the economic spectrum.
He added that YES Cinema, with is owned and operate by the LCNFC, has had fiber for some time and is very reliant on the service, since all of the movies it shows are now digital.
“Speaking from experience, fiber is going to be phenomenal for consistency,” he said.
“Columbus residents require state-of-the-art fiber internet to live, work and learn in the 21st century,” Lienhoop said. “With the first homes ready for fiber internet service, we are progressing on our goal of serving every member of our community with the highest-speed and quality internet regardless of income level.”
He also expressed hope that the new amenity will help make Columbus “the community of choice for any kind of remote worker” and indicated that it will also be an asset for attracting businesses as well.
According to city officials, the advantages of fiber connection include being less prone to outages than traditional cable and “nearly unlimited scalability and adaptability to future applications.”
“I strongly believe fiber is going to be transformational for Columbus in the coming years,” said Brodin.
Dan Sivils, chief operating office for IsoFusion, said that Hoosier Fiber Network’s expectation is that service within the larger area of Bartholomew County will start to be available in early 2024. He added that since the county entered the project later than the other communities, its work is “a little behind.”
County residents can go to gigabitnow.com/columbus to preregister.
“When the launch of services in the larger portion of the county draws near, all of their addresses will be updated from Hoosier Fiber Networks, and we’ll send out more information to them and specific links and updates,” he said.
Lienhoop recalled that when he first took office in 2016, there were couple of providers who expressed interest in constructing a network but wanted “a significant amount of community support.”
It was Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton who suggested that the city consider working with Meridiam.
“The issue with Meridiam, as I understood it, was that they wanted to make a bigger investment than what would be required to provide this network in any of our individual communities,” said Lienhoop. “So we put together what’s a loose partnership among Bloomington, Columbus, Shelbyville, the county of Bartholomew. … It was only because we were able to bring all those communities together that we were able to attract the investor.”
