Fiber optic internet on Washington Island expected to start rolling out in October
WASHINGTON ISLAND - A Sturgeon Bay-based technology company is working with the local electric utility to bring what they say will be the fastest internet service in the region and increased reliability to the Island.
That's because Quantum Technologies and the Washington Island Electric Cooperative are getting ready to open a new fiber optic network that will be available to every home and business on the Island, with the first customers expected to start using it by the end of October.
“This is a really exciting project,” Nathan Drager, owner of Quantum Technologies, said in a news release. “When we’re done, Washington Island will go from having the worst internet service in Door County to having the newest, best and fastest network in all of northeastern Wisconsin.”
Currently, internet service only is available on the Island through DSL (digital subscriber line) or a variety of satellite signal providers. None offer the high internet speeds possible with fiber optic service, and distortion of the signal increases while its strength and speed decrease as the distance it travels increases through the copper wires used for DSL, while signal strength and speed remain constant with the glass filaments used in fiber optic cable.
When it comes to speed, the news release noted that a two-hour-long, 4.5-gigabyte, high-definition movie takes about 38 seconds to download through a fiber optic service with a one gigabyte per second, or 1,000 megabytes, fiber connection, which is one of the options that will be available for Washington Island customers. The same download would take about six and a half minutes with a cable connection and nearly 26 minutes with DSL.
In the release, Drager said the Island has had reliability issues with its internet connections, with a microwave tower serving as the sole link to service, and the new fiber service should dramatically improve reliability. At one point in 2019, the tower failed, and the entire island was disconnected for nine days.
"(It was) not only the internet but also phone service, (and) there were issues calling 911," Robert Cornell, manager of the Washington Island Electric Cooperative, told the Advocate about the 2019 outage.
The electric cooperative, the Island's power company, will own the network and be its internet service provider. The network will connect to Green Bay-based telecommunications company Nsight as its backhaul, "our lane onto the information highway," as Cornell described it.
Initial rates are expected to be $59.95 a month for upload/download speeds of 100 megabytes per second, $89.95 a month for one gigabyte per second. With the cooperative owning the network, fees to use it will be added to electric bills of members who choose to subscribe to one of the services. Cornell said these are not "teaser" or introductory rates and are expected to remain stable as long as operating costs do.
“If, in the future, we are put in a position to increase rates,” Cornell said, “we would aim to increase speeds as well.”
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Cornell said the cooperative has worked hard to let its members know about the new network and the feedback he's received has been more than positive, with strong support from the school district and the business community.
"The biggest response is, how come you didn't do this years ago?'" he said with a chuckle.
Quantum and the cooperative first worked together in 2018, with Quantum consulting on a project to replace the failing 23,000-foot-long submarine cable that provided power to the Island with a new submarine fiber cable.
The fiber optic network project started in April 2021 and is running in five phases that are scheduled to be completed in 2027. Drager said in the news release that the project is about halfway through the first phase, which will connect vital institutions such as the police station, the school, the town hall and the visitor center.
Each subsequent phase is expected to add the capability to connect another 225 houses or more a year, and by the end every home and business on the Island will have access.
Quantum plans to maintain a presence on the Island once the network is complete. The company bought a vacant business there to eventually become its storefront for repair work and other services.
Contact Christopher Clough at 920-562-8900 or cclough@doorcountyadvocate.com.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Fiber optic internet on Washington Island to roll out in October
