At last, the only town in the most remote county in the lower 48 states is getting high-speed fiber internet.
Work is underway to connect the tiny town of Lake City in southwestern Colorado.
To get fiber optic cable from Gunnison to Lake City, over rough mountain terrain, would cost a lot of money. Money, tiny Hinsdale County doesn’t have.
However, it turns out fiber was already in place. Hinsdale County Commissioner Greg Levine said it’s been here for decades.
“It was installed by CenturyLink years and years ago,” he said. “The fiber was brought to the town to the CenturyLink building but CenturyLink never built out beyond that.”
Levine said the remote county isn’t a profitable investment for the telecommunications giant.
“CenturyLink doesn’t see us as a viable market in which to provide that service to,” he said. “We are a poor market. We’re not attractive. [With] less than 800 residents in the county, it becomes a tough business pitch.”
Region 10, an association of local governments, serves six counties on the Western Slope including Hinsdale. The organization is working on a regional effort to improve broadband infrastructure.
So far it’s been able to do so in 14 communities like Delta, Montrose, Gunnison, and Telluride.
Michelle Haynes, the organization's executive director, said businesses in rural communities face operational challenges without high-speed internet.
However, she said it was during COVID that the broader community impact really came to light.
“You know, your kids can’t go home from school and do their work from home if there isn’t adequate broadband, and we can’t do telemedicine and you can’t even work remotely if there isn’t adequate broadband,” Haynes said.
She said the goal is to connect communities to the organization’s regional network.
“And set up a meet me point or carrier-neutral location, they go by different terms, but a place where we can bring that line into the community and work with private providers to be able to take that service out to the homes and businesses,” Haynes said.
Region 10 is helping Hinsdale County with its middle-mile project. That means extending the internet backbone so it connects internet service providers to end users.
The organization secured agreements to connect Lake City to its network in Gunnison and connect fiber to anchor institutions such as the school, courthouse, and medical center.
It was awarded a $300,000 Energy and Mineral Impact Assistance grant from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs for the project.
Haynes said the state recognizes that former mining towns like Lake City need help with infrastructure projects.
“They’ve taken some of the energy, mineral impact funds in recognizing some of these communities are often no longer mining for coal or mining in general or have power plants which were a big source of income before so they’ve taken some funding from that fund to invest into these middlemile projects,” she said.
The grant required a 50/50 match.
Hinsdale County and the Town of Lake City each put up $100,000 of American Recovery Act funds towards the project.
The Gunnison County Electric Association also ponied up $100,000 knowing it could get fiber to the substation in town.
Visionary Broadband, a multistate private internet provider, is installing fiber optic cable over power lines or underground in Lake City to complete the middle mile project.
“High-speed internet is something that’s been lacking for many years,” said Town Mayor Dave Roberts. “It’s been frustrating for the local residents. No reliability.”
Residents complain about internet connectivity, speed, and affordability.
So Roberts is happy to see progress towards better broadband in Lake City.
“It’s something that’s been needed for a long time,” he said. “It’s still not in place but we are looking forward to it. I think it will play a big role in the future of our town.”
However, not everyone in Hinsdale County will have access to high-speed fiber internet.
“The initial buildout is limited to what I’d call the boundaries of the town,” said Commissioner Levine. “It goes through Wade’s Addition, goes to the water tower, and then as far north as road and bridge. But it doesn’t cover all the residents by a long shot. We will have hundreds of people that are still needing those services.”
He said after the middle mile project is finished, the county plans to go after additional funding to continue broadband expansion.
Hinsdale County is hoping to get another slice of the more than $1.2 billion in federal funds the state received to improve high-speed internet access.
Commissioner Levine said adequate broadband is an essential service.
“Broadband internet is now a utility just like [electricity],” he said. “It becomes kind of like a right for people. They need it.”
The middle-mile project is set to wrap up this fall. Once complete, high-speed fiber internet will soon become available for a majority of residents and businesses in town.
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