Frontier: Ashland, Loudonville, Hayesville to see fiber-optic cable upgrades

Barry Fortune
·2 min read

Ashland County Board of Commissioners

Thursday, Sept. 15 meeting

KEY ACTION Heard about Frontier Communications' plans for new fiber-optic cable internet in the Ashland area.

DISCUSSION Vice-President of External Affairs for Frontier Fiber, Mike O’Keefe, gave a presentation on the company's installation plans, which stretch beyond Ashland.

“We are about halfway through the city and we have some planned builds for Loudonville and Hayesville as well,” said O’Keefe.

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He showed several maps outlining the areas of coverage and the advantages of fiber versus copper lines.

“With so many people working from home these days, we need to make sure that people have very fast and reliable connectivity,” explained O’Keefe. “Both to homes and businesses, as well.”

Commissioner Mike Welch inquired about upload and download speeds available. O’Keefe said speeds would be up to 2 GB, with the potential for increasing the speed in the future.

Welch also asked if the distance the line is run to a home would affect speed.

“Distance does not matter,” said O’Keefe. “It did with copper. With fiber you don’t have that. It doesn’t matter if you are next to the box, or the last person being served, it will be the same.”

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Other action at the Ashland County commissioners meeting

  • Approved travel expenses for Job & Family Services employees Dana Gillespie, Stacy Emery and Kylee Ash.

  • Commissioner James Justice was approved to travel to Columbus on Oct. 19 for an energy committee meeting.

  • Appropriated $22,000 for the purchase of a 2002 Dump Truck and another $8,860 for a fire alarm replacement panel at J&FS. Both of these appropriations were then approved later in the meeting.

  • Entered into a contract with Plunkett’s Pest Control for service at the County Maintenance Garage with a yearly fee of $1,482.

  • Three subcontracts for the County Dog Shelter were on the agenda, but tabled for a later date. Commissioner Denny Bittle asked that the items be put on hold until next week as he had not met with Simonson Construction about the contracts.

UP NEXT: Meets at 9 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 22 in the conference room on the second floor of the County Office Building. Meetings are open to all and livestreamed on the county's Facebook page.

This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Frontier upgrading to fiber-optic cable in parts of Ashland County