“RST is going gangbusters,” Deputy Town Manager Roe O’Donnell said Monday. “Right now they are looking at adding additional crews, and today they are drilling around town hall.”
RST, the Shelby-based firm that hopes to turn Wake Forest into the first fiber optic high-speed internet small town in North Carolina, is working on two fronts.
Crews are boring underground for 14 miles to install conduit for the fiber optic cable – a “backbone” of conduit holding the cable will link Wake Forest with a facility in Raleigh.
RST officials are still meeting with O’Donnell and other town officials, working on the details for the agreement with the town. “We told them our (electric power) pole attachment fees and asked they how much power their devices will pull.” RST did not know the answer, O’Donnell said. The town needs to know the answer to be able determine the fees.
The underground cable will be the backbone in town too, but RST will also string cable on the town’s electric poles to connect many customers wirelessly. Wake Forest Power, the town’s independently run power department, serves only part of the town. Wake Electric serves a substantial number of town customers and Duke Energy Progress also has some.
“They’re working feverishly. I think they intend to be up and running by the summer,” O’Donnell said.
Meanwhile, the task force set up to bring high speed broadband internet service to town is inviting representatives for town neighborhoods and homeowners associations to a special information session Monday, May 12, from 6 to 7 p.m. in the Wake Forest Renaissance Centre on Brooks Street.
The purpose of the meeting is to inform those attending about the high speed fiber network, its benefits and costs along with a tentative timeline with time for questions at the end.
The people who want to attend are asked to RSVP by Friday, May 9, to bcrabtree@wakeforestnc.gov.
Meanwhile, about 1,500 people and counting have responded to the town’s short questionnaire designed to determine the level of interest in the high speed fiber network and where in town there is the greatest interest. The questionnaire is at www.wakeforestnc.gov/fiber-to-the-home-survey.aspx. The questionnaire will be on line through the end of May, and town officials hope at least 3,000 people respond.
In February the Wake Forest Board of Commissioners appointed the Fiber to the Home & Business (FTHB) 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 installing a fiber network in Wake Forest.
As for the progress of the boring and drilling, task force member Dan Holt wrote this week, “The conduit boring will last another 30 to 45 days. It may be awhile until I have more news cause… Boring is…. Boring.”
