The highly anticipated addition of E Fiber from Carbon Emery Telcom is finally making its way into the local community.
Brock Johansen, CEO and general manager of Carbon Emery Telcom since 2005, was very proud to present E-fiber to Carbon County residents at a fiber launch party that took place at the Tuscan in Price on Monday.
Carbon Emery Telcom came to the area in 2001, purchasing the plant from Quest. The company then spent about ten years upgrading the plant.
Up until now, service has been carried over copper lines. According to Johansen, the old copper plant had limitations because it was delivered across an electronic network. Fiber technology does not have a limit on how far it can carry a signal. The limitations that were subject with the old copper lines will be eliminated with the new fiber use. Fiber is not subject to temperature, rain, water or other weather conditions thanks to the protective cover that sheaths it. The old troubles that were generally present with copper are expected to go down 18% of what they are now.
“Fiber communities are greatly needed in the U.S.,” Johansen said.
Johansen explained that there has been a big desire for cities to get fiber. Google fiber is currently only available in Kansas City, MO, Austin, TX and Provo, UT. An executive team from Carbon Emery Telcom sat down three years ago and made the choice to make the switch over to fiber. Phase one of the project will be complete early this year with the second phase shortly after.
The second phase is going to be a more complicated process. The workers will come into citizens’ yards and homes. Johansen stated he thought a meeting was prudent before staff members started knocking on doors and coming into homes.
The new fiber technology is a tiny piece of glass with a protective coating. A set of lasers will shine through each side and communicate back and forth to create the signals. Johansen had some examples of the fiber technology at the launch party and passed them around so that attendees could see exactly what they were like.
“A piece of fiber is about the size of your hair with the protective coat on it,” Johansen stated.
The addition of fiber is not costing customers extra money. One way the company was able to afford that, according to Johansen, is to have aerial lines. If your home is already serviced by an aerial drop, fiber will be added that way and will not add a new line across your yard. It will simply replace the existing one. Some subdivisions have buried lines and Carbon Emery Telcom will happily come and bury the new line for you. Additionally, if you currently have an aerial line but want a buried line that can be done but with an additional cost.
“You are going to see a huge speed increase in your internet. It is going to be unbelievable,” Johansen said.
With the addition of fiber, fees will not be based on speeds anymore. Carbon Emery Telcom was aware that it would mean a revenue decrease for the company, but is not asking the customers to pay more. The company is simply going to re-adjust to bill to be based on usage, not speed. This will allow customers to pay for only what they are using.
A portion of the launch party was set aside for a question and answer period. One question from a citizen was what would happen with the existing DSL lines. According to Johansen, DSL will be gone once E-Fiber is in place. The DSL network is antiquated and hard to maintain.
“It is going to open up this whole County to endless possibilities,” stated Johansen.
Another question was whether or not fiber would be available in apartment buildings. The answer was yes. There are ways E Fiber can service apartment complexes and will serve multiple units at once.
Carbon Emery Telcom is working hard to get E Fiber to everyone. City centers will be covered first and then outer areas will be worked on. The company is hoping to get the main centers of all cities and towns in Carbon and Emery done in about four-and-a-half years. Technicians are able to do about two installs a day with that number subject to change.
At the end of the launch party, names were called for prizes to be given. One lucky member even won an iPad.