Because of the great interest in the “Fiber to the Forest” initiative, the town’s Broadband Task Force will hold three public meetings in May to tell residents about the effort to bring high speed broadband internet service to Wake Forest.
The first meeting will be Monday, May 12, at 6 p.m. at the Wake Forest Renaissance Centre at 405 South Brooks Streets. The next three meetings, all beginning at 6 p.m. and at the Renaissance Centre, will be Thursday, May 22, and Thursday, May 29.
The meetings will inform residents about the installation now underway of an ultra high speed fiber network throughout town. Topics covered will include the benefits and potential cost to consumers of the fiber network service, a tentative timeline and what to expect during installation. There will be a period for questions after the presentation.
The task force originally targeted neighborhood and homeowners’ association representatives for the May 12 meeting but opted to invite all area residents and schedule additional information sessions due to the community’s tremendous response and level of interest.
As of this week, over 2,000 area residents have completed a survey on the town’s website – over two-thirds the total number of responses the task force hopes for between now and the end of May. That survey was developed by the task force to determine the community’s interest in fiber service and indicate the areas with the highest concentrations of potential fiber network users. You can find the survey at www.wakeforestnc.gov/fiber-to-the-home-survey.aspx.
In February the Wake Forest Board of Commissioners appointed the Broadband Task Force to advise the town on how to bring a high-speed fiber broadband network to Wake Forest homes and businesses. Comprised of communications and computer business industry leaders and chaired by MCNC CEO Joe Freddoso, the task force contacted Shelby-based RST Fiber to gauge the company’s interest in launching a fiber network in Wake Forest. Negotiations between the town and RST began shortly afterward and resulted in RST’s decision to proceed.
During the week of April 14, RST Fiber crews began installing the fiber network that will allow beta testing in strategic areas around town. Assuming all goes well, the next step will be to provide gigabit Internet service (1,000 MB per second) to Wake Forest homes and businesses – possibly as early as this summer – making Wake Forest the Triangle’s first gigabit community.
For more information on Wake Forest’s Fiber-to-the-Home initiative, visit www.wakeforestnc.gov/fiber-to-the-forest.aspx or contact Deputy Town Manager Roe O’Donnell at 919-435-9412 or rodonnell@wakeforestnc.gov.
