BICKNELL — Residents here will soon have another option for high-speed Internet service.
Montgomery-based RTC Communications announced Wednesday in a ceremony at the fairgrounds that it will use $4 million in private funding to build a fiber internet infrastructure within the city limits, ultimately providing the fastest internet. Did. services available here.
CEO Kirk Lehman told a small group of elected city officials and RTC officials gathered in the exhibition hall that some residents would be able to participate in the RTC in March, and that in May He said he hopes it will be accessible to all homes and businesses. .
“We will be operating on a very aggressive timeline,” Lehmann told a small group.
Mayor Thomas Estabrook thanked RTC Communications for its investment in Bicknell, likening it to the forward thinking of building the Gossard Building downtown in 1956.
Under then-Mayor Bob Moore, a small group of people dedicated to improving the city came together to form the Better Bicknell Club, one of the results of which was the construction of that building, which led to other growth in downtown. I was.
“They are dedicated, energetic people who decided they wanted to come together and grow their community,” said Estabrook. “Today’s opportunities are like those days.
“This is an opportunity for the community to grow,” he continued. “This is what drives us forward and makes us a community that everyone talks about.”
RTC Communications has primarily provided high-speed fiber to rural communities in Martin, Davis, and Lawrence counties. This is the first project in Knox County, and the service may later be expanded to other communities in the North Knox area, Lehman said.
He called their expansion into Knox County “a great day.”
“And I’m thrilled to be a part of Bicknell’s growing economy,” he said. “This will make him one of the most advanced fiber he networks in the entire city of Bicknell, rivaling networks found in major cities in the United States.”
Service via RTC Communications will eventually allow for Internet services up to 1 gigabyte, with the potential for up to 10 gigabytes in the future, he said.
He, too, calls it a “robust and reliable” service that is “essential to the economic health of modern societies.”
“Today’s enterprise customers need fast, reliable broadband to build a solid foundation to meet the future demands of their business.”
If they don’t have it, “the family feels stuck,” he said.
“But we are behind the city of Bicknell at the time,” he said.
Chris Pfaff, president of Knox County Indiana Economic Development, also welcomed RTC Communications with open arms, calling Wednesday’s announcement a sort of member of the organization’s Broadband Task Force. County—always dreamed of.
“This is exactly what we were thinking,” he said. “What a nice day.
“Bicknell will soon be able to experience what it is like to have the best fiber Internet service (extension) delivered directly to your home or business.”
Bicknell currently has two broadband providers, Frontier and Sparklight.
However, this will be the first build of a fiber infrastructure.
