Plan calls for fiber to be deployed throughout county as part of $39 million public-private project to deliver high-speed internet and help end digital divide
What’s the news?
Vanderburgh County, Indiana announced a $39 million project with AT&T* to build out high-speed fiber broadband to more than 20,000 households and businesses in the county.
Why is this important?
About one-third of the population of unincorporated Vanderburgh County does not currently have access to fixed broadband solutions, according to county records. Reliable and affordable broadband has become more important than ever, with many consumers continuing to work, learn and entertain from home.
When approved, Vanderburgh County is expected to invest $9.9 million, and AT&T would invest $29.7 million to the project to provide fiber to much of unincorporated Vanderburgh County. The network is expected to be complete two years after a final agreement has been signed. The project is contingent upon funding approval by Vanderburgh County, and a final contract between AT&T and the county.
What are people saying?
“With one-third of the population of unincorporated Vanderburgh County without access to fixed broadband solutions, we’re acting swiftly to end the digital divide,” said Cheryl Musgrave, Commissioner, Vanderburgh County. “Working with AT&T will bring our residents fast broadband speeds using an efficient public-private model.”
“Our collaboration with Vanderburgh County leaders will help close the digital divide by bringing high-speed Internet to thousands of Hoosier families, farms and businesses,” said Bill Soards, president, AT&T Indiana. “AT&T FIBER® is the fastest growing fiber internet in America, and we look forward to serving more customers in Vanderburgh County, particularly in rural areas.”
What are the advantages of fiber?
AT&T FIBER delivers symmetrical upload and download speeds of nearly 1 GIG, which means up to 25x faster upload speeds than cable.1 With consistently fast speeds, even at peak times,2 consumers can expect strong performance across AT&T FIBER’s portfolio of speed tiers – 300, 500 and 1 GIG. In addition to fast speeds, customers have the added benefit of experiencing high-speed broadband internet with the latest Wi-Fi equipment, like the Wi-Fi 6 and tri-band enabled Wi-Fi gateway3 and optional extenders.
Wi-Fi 6 and tri-band technology provides increased capacity for more devices to connect to the network and better coverage, and are prepared to support multi-gig speeds in the future.
With no internet data limits, no annual contracts, next-gen Wi-Fi equipment and enhanced security features, AT&T subscribers receive award-winning service on their terms. In fact, AT&T just recently won #1 in Customer Satisfaction from J.D. Power for Residential Internet in the North Central region, including Indiana, for the second year in a row.4
From 2018-2020, AT&T invested more than $1 billion in its wireless and wireline networks in Indiana to expand coverage and improve connectivity in more communities.
That investment has increased reliability, coverage and overall performance for residents and businesses. It’s also improved critical communications services for Indiana’s first responders using the FirstNet network.
1 Comparison of Internet 1000 wired upload connection speed to Xfinity, Spectrum & COX 1Gig and 1.2Gig service with uploads of 35 Mbps
2 Based on wired connection to gateway
3 Subject to availability
4 AT&T received the highest score in the North Central region in the J.D. Power 2020-2021 U.S. Residential Internet Service Provider Satisfaction (ISP) Studies of customers’ satisfaction with their current internet service provider. Visit jdpower.com/awards.
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