For over 116 years Christensen Communications Company has strived to bring state of the art telecommunications services to our customers. Where the focus in the early days was on telephone service, now it is on high speed Internet.
In 2008 the Company began to design a new state of the art fiber network and a plan to deploy that network in the Madelia exchange. It started with deploying 10 telecommunications cabinets in rural Madelia that were fed with fiber optic cable. This allowed rural customers to receive higher Internet speeds or get Internet service where it could not be offered before. Electronics were upgrade in Madelia to offer better and faster Internet to customers in town.
In 2016 a master plan was put together to replace the existing copper facilities with fiber all the way to the customer premise throughout rural Madelia. In 2017 CCC accepted funds from the FCC, which is allowing the company to deploy fiber to customers at a much faster rate. Along with these new funds, came an obligation to build to specific locations outside of town determined by the FCC. CCC must build to these locations by 2028. Currently CCC is ahead of this timeline and has turned up 78 of the 329 locations required by the FCC. In addition, the Company has installed fiber to the majority of businesses on both sides of Main Street and residences and businesses along the fiber routes out of town.
In 2018 equipment was upgraded in the Madelia Central Office. This allowed CCC to increase Internet speeds to customers in town, which was done at no additional cost to the customer. Internet modems were replaced at each customer’s house in order to take advantage of these higher speeds.
There are many ways to deliver the Internet. Internet speeds are faster because of fiber optic cables. These cables are roughly the size of a human hair and the Internet travels through the cables via light waves. Fiber optic cables are made of glass and very durable. Fiber internet connectivity offers significant reliability advantages over other technologies because it is not susceptible to weather conditions and the fact that light can carry more Internet traffic faster than electricity over copper, wireless technologies or satellite services.
Customers who have been switched to fiber service have asked a lot of good questions, here are some of them:
WHAT IS FIBER TO THE HOME? Fiber to the Home refers to a technology that can be used to provide communication services to your home or business. Fiber allows CCC to provide telephone, and internet over fiber optic cable.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF FIBER? The greatest benefit of fiber to the home is the amount of information and services that can be provided over a single connection. Additionally, the technology offers great Internet speed and crystal-clear connections.
WHAT IS DIFFERENT ABOUT FIBER? Unlike copper or coaxial cable, fiber optic cable cannot provide electrical power to the devices that are connected to it. Therefore, power must be supplied by a local source at your home or business. In addition to standard AC power, a battery backup unit is required for telephone, inside your home or business, to allow services to function in the event of a power outage.
HOW DOES FIBER TO THE HOME AFFECT INTERET? Fiber to the home offers greater bandwidth and the ability for us to provide you more internet speed. This benefit provides the opportunity for music, movies, and a variety of other services that require higher speeds of internet.
WILL MY TELEPHONE SERVICE AND NUMBER REMAIN THE SAME? CCC will make high quality telephone service along with convenient call features available to you. If you telephone number is active, you will be able to keep it.
ANY OTHER CONCERNS? Because Fiber to the Home is more expensive to operate and repair, it is even more essential that you call 811 or 1-800-252-1166 at least 48 hours prior to digging anywhere on your property. Not only will it keep you safe and help avoid the inconvenience of an outage, but it may save you from having to pay for costly repairs to the fiber optic cable.
WHY ARE YOU BUILDING THE FIBER TO THE HOME NETWORK? We feel fiber to the home will offer the services communities deserve and expect. The new technology will allow us to offer today’s telecommunication services and those that become available in the future
WILL I NEED TO PURCHASE A NEW TELEPHONE, COMPUTER, or TELEVISION? It depends on the equipment you have. Telephones with a gong style ringer will need to be replaced. Computers will need to have an Ethernet port to plug into or have Wi-Fi capabilities. Televisions should have an HDMI type connection in order to receive the best quality picture and audio.
WHEN WILL I GET FIBER TO THE HOME? You will be notified when we will be coming by your neighborhood. This is a long-term project.
WILL COMPANY EMPLOYEES NEED TO ENTER MY HOME? Yes, both company employees and/or authorized contractors will need to enter your home to install new wires that make Fiber to the home, work with your current computers, televisions and telephones.
WHAT EQUIPMENT IS NEEDED IN MY HOME TO BE CONNECTED TO THE FIBER TO THE HOME NETWORK? We will install a new optical network termination (ONT) device on your home. The device will need to be placed near an electrical outlet, which will act as its power source. If you have telephone service, we are required to install a battery backup unit to keep telephone service operational in case of commercial power outage. The amount of electricity used by the ONT device is extremely small and not noticeable.
WHAT IS THIS GOING TO COST ME? There is no cost to the property owner for us to bring fiber up to the house. If you are already a copper customer there will be no charge to change from copper to Fiber. For all new customers, there is a $79.95 installation charge.
WHAT HAPPENS IF I DON’T ALLOW FIBER INSTALLATION NOW? At some point in the future, the existing copper network will be decommissioned. When that occurs, we will no longer be able to provide service to any customer who has not had a fiber drop installed. Even if a customer doesn’t have Internet service, they will need a fiber drop installed in order to subscribe to telephone service. Those residents not allowing a fiber drop during constuction will need to pay to have the fiber installed up to the home.
