Range poised to expand fiber access to Northern PR County

Those driving through Broadus this spring may have noticed the large reels packed with orange cable near the FWP building along Hwy 212. These reels hold fiber optic cable, which area telecommunications provider Range is planning to install in the northern reaches of Powder River County to enhance internet speeds to area customers.

We spoke with Range CEO, Rob Johnstone, recently about the planned project.

"The plan is to run 33 miles of main line and six miles of fiber drops to customers along our North Broadus Exchange," he said. "Customer internet speeds are expected to increase to around 1000 Mbps. In the past, we've been happy to get 10, with some well below that number, so you're looking at a hundred-fold increase in internet speeds, at the minimum."

The fiber lines will replace existing copper lines, and will increase internet speeds for an estimated 77 customers along the route. If everything goes to plan, the route for the new lines will run along Pumpkin Creek Road, down Hwy 59 to Muddy Springs Road, and east towards Powderville.

Work on the line replacement is weather dependent as well as dependent on landowner easements to allow Range to access and replace the existing lines. The phases detailed above are expected to be completed in the summer of 2021. In 2022, work is planned for areas closer to Powderville.

Rural broadband projects have been a point of emphasis as of late at the State and Federal level, with money being piped towards rural areas to improve broadband infrastructure. Range has been utilizing this money to work on expanding high speed access, but these large-scale infrastructure projects in rural areas aren't cheap; the projects this summer to bring high speed access to the 77 Range customers will be a three million dollar investment.

The lack of universal high-speed rural internet access became especially apparent during COVID, as some rural students in our area who were then attending school remotely didn't have the internet speed to attend school online; instead they used take-home, hard copies of their work. This lack of access denied those students the ability to hold face to face conversations with their teachers and classmates, and emphasized the fact that in our modern world, good internet access is a true necessity. The push for rural telehealth has also shown a need for better, faster internet in our area.

Johnstone emphasized Range's commitment to customer service, and said anyone with questions are encouraged to call Range's customer service number at 800-927-2643.