Frontier and Comcast present competing fiber plans to Westville; companies outline timing, restoration and contact procedures

At a Westville Town Council meeting that was streamed on YouTube, representatives from Frontier and Comcast outlined separate plans to bring new fiber infrastructure to Westville, estimating permitting and staged turn-ups this summer and promising coordination on restoration and resident communications.

The presentations matter because both proposed builds aim to bring higher-speed, symmetrical broadband to businesses and, later, potentially residences in Westville — a change council members said could affect traffic, utility easements and right-of-way work.

Mike O'Keefe, vice president of external affairs for Frontier in Indiana, said Frontier will “upgrade all of our areas to fiber to the home,” describing a mostly overlay approach where the company will overlash fiber on existing copper lines but use boring for roughly 35% of routes. He said Frontier expects to serve “about a thousand customer locations” in the footprint it showed the council, and that permitting typically runs “about 60 days.” Todd Payne, Frontier’s construction manager for Indiana, told the council, “we'll work very closely with… the town to make sure that we're not, you know, taxing your resources beyond your capacity.” Frontier said it uses knee-high pedestals and will work with town staff on siting and depth to avoid conflicts with water and sewer lines.

Phil Goodrich, Comcast’s manager of government regulatory affairs for Northwest Indiana, said Comcast is proposing an enterprise-first build focused on the business district, adding that building business backbones generally makes future residential service easier to add. John Holmes, Comcast’s construction specialist, told the council the company was “anticipating starting probably early June” if local permitting proceeds as expected and said Comcast already had county and state permits approved for aspects of the project. Holmes said Comcast plans underground directional boring for the initial build in the business areas and will place a primary hub near Belgrade Street behind the library.

Both companies described contractor oversight, complaint tracking and restoration commitments. Frontier said it uses door hangers and yard signs and maintains an internal complaints team; Frontier identified a vendor for the local work (referred to in the meeting as “ServSafe”/“ServSafe USA”) and said vendor crews are tracked for quality. Comcast said it will use in-house crews for the underground work and named a local partner (Hoosier) as its construction company.

Council members pressed for contractor licensing and insurance documentation. Town staff reiterated that boring contractors will need to be licensed with the town and submit a certificate of insurance; both companies said they will provide contact lists for residents and for the town, and will coordinate daily schedules so town staff know which crews are working in which locations.

Next steps: both companies said they will submit detailed construction plans and permitting materials to the town; Frontier estimated possible July–August initial turn-ups after permitting, Comcast indicated an early-June construction start if local permits align with its schedule. Town staff identified Nathan as the primary municipal contact for construction coordination.

Officials did not take any formal action or vote on either company’s proposal during the meeting; the companies left with instructions to submit permits and to coordinate siting and contractor registration with town staff.