New fiber internet option looks to connect North Canton
NORTH CANTON — A new broadband option is heading to North Canton, with the goal of getting new customers online in the next 12 months.
Windstream Communications, an internet company, is expanding its reach in Northeast Ohio to Stark County, with plans to lay fiber in North Canton and Canton as well as some surrounding townships.
Connected: In Carroll County and elsewhere in rural Ohio, many still lack broadband access
Chris Thomas, the company’s vice president for governmental affairs, approached North Canton City Council this month to inform the city of the company’s plans and to offer the possibility of collaboration with the city to expand broadband access.
“Cities and townships and counties have gotten hundreds of thousands and sometimes millions of dollars in American Rescue Plan funds – and there's probably more coming – that has to be used on infrastructure. And one of the permitted infrastructure usages is fiber networks," Thomas said.
"So to the extent that we're going to build up a certain percentage of the city and [if] they want a larger piece built and they are willing to help on construction costs in a partnership, that is something that we will be discussing if they're interested."
Thomas said that they'd like to have the first customers hooked up to the new fiber network in about 12 months. He said they should be able to cover the majority of North Canton, but areas for partnership with the city may come up if there are harder to reach pockets that require additional construction costs.
He said their company is focusing on fiber as part of a $2 billion project in multiple areas to replace old copper lines with fiber.
"As people use more and more data, fiber is going to be the probably the only way that they can get it at the very fastest multi gig speeds," Thomas said.
Broadband infrastructure expansion gained significant attention in the last two years, as the pandemic forced work and school to be conducted from home via internet connection. As such, federal, state and local governments have looked to shore up broadband connection where it may have been lacking, particularly in rural areas.
According to state broadband data, 39% of the populated areas of Stark County and 14% of households don't have access to 25/3 mbps, which is considered the minimum standard broadband speed. In North Canton, access to speeds in the 50-100 Mbps range is higher.
When Windstream comes online in North Canton, it will be one of several connection options already in place, including AT&T and Massillon Cable TV, which both offer fiber connection, as well as Spectrum, T-Mobile and others.
Sam Zern can be reached at szern@cantonrep.com or 330-580-8322. You can also find her on Twitter at @sam_zern.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Windstream fiber internet option coming to North Canton
