Bluepeak launches internet service in Bartlesville
Telecommunications provider Bluepeak has brought its first Bartlesville internet customers online as it continues a $15 million project installing a fiber optic network throughout the city.
Construction on the two-year infrastructure project began in March. The company currently has 13 Bartlesville customers in the Rolling Hills area and plans to work in Colonial Estates next.
“We flipped the switch and are providing service to customers. It is a construction process though. … We’re building out the network. So it’s not like we flipped the switch to the whole town, we do it in chunks as we have the network built out,” Bluepeak Senior Communications Specialist Amil Anderson said.
Bluepeak is installing 129 miles of aerial fiber and 82 miles of underground fiber in the city. As the fiber-optic network becomes available in each area of Bartlesville, those interested in the service will schedule a time for one of the company’s technicians to install a connection from the network to their home or business — a process that takes a few hours.
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The company is coordinating work with the City of Bartlesville and is notifying nearby residents and businesses 90 days, 30 days and two weeks prior to beginning work in an area. Still, there have been some concerns, with the city receiving enough calls that it addressed the project in its weekly newsletter.
In the newsletter, Bartlesville Director of Engineering Micah Siemers said while the city formerly encouraged those with questions to reach out, they are now directing questions directly to the company.
“That takes us out of the middle and allows Bluepeak to handle these matters directly, which is what they want and have requested to do as well,” Siemers said in the newsletter.
Areas of Bartlesville where Bluepeak is able to install the fiber lines overhead will have less disturbance than those where it needs to be buried.
Other telecommunication providers in Bartlesville have limited fiber-optic infrastructure within the city, largely relying on cable connections for internet and cable service.
Fiber-optic connections, made up of flexible strands of glass that transmit information through light, are a faster, more reliable alternative to cable connections, which rely on copper cables that transmit information with electricity.
This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: Bluepeak launches Bartlesville internet service
