TSS's ARPA Project Fiber-To-The Home Begins

TeleSystem Services (TSS) of Whitehall is starting to receive equipment for the expansion of the Fiber-to-the-Home project they installed along First Street in 2017. Jason is shown unloading the first of about five spools of underground conduit to bury along the second street in Whitehall and several cross streets intersecting the area. Fiber will be installed along North Jefferson and Division Streets and the length of Second Street from McKay to Noble Streets. The installation of the conduits will be accomplished with local contractors providing the trenching and installation of the access and distribution points. The installation will begin on the McKay end of 2nd Street.

Smaller diameter conduit will be installed in participating homes and businesses along the route. Only homes wanting the fiber installation will be connected initially but the system is designed to be expandable later on after the ARPA-funded route is completed. The ARPA grant has funding to provide for 18 new connections to the system at no installation cost to the homeowner. These connections will be on a first-come-first-served basis. Existing TSS customers along the route will be installed at TSS's expense.

The optical fiber will be "blown" into the conduits using compressed air after the underground conduits are installed. The TSS plan is to get the conduits installed first while the weather cooperates and then install the optical fiber in the conduits later this Fall. The fiber is "plug and play," prepared to length, and is factory-terminated and tested by the supplier. One of the great features of the fiber is that it is not limited by bandwidth. The same fiber can be used for later upgrading to extremely fast speeds by today's standards. Initially, it will be configured for the newly suggested FCC speed of 100 megabits (Mbits) down and 20 megabits up. This will be the fastest Internet available in the Whitehall area although TSS has demonstrated a full gigabit (1000 Mbit) delivery to points along the original system in the past.

TSS plans to continue expanding the basic system to all of Whitehall as soon as possible. TSS is also working simultaneously on some rural projects to help rural users around the surrounding Whitehall area.

You may call TSS at 287-5308 to get your name on the Expansion Project list and get your installation paid for by the ARPA grant.