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Lewis County broadband project nears closeout; Toledo Tel reports 2,400 home passings, 1,700 signups
Summary
At the April 1 Lewis County commissioners meeting Toledo Tel gave a progress update on a $25 million county broadband grant: construction is mostly complete on early phases, signups are advancing but CenturyLink/Lumen locate delays have caused some outages; the grant will close out in July and late hookups may incur customer costs.
Toledo Tel told the Lewis County Board of Commissioners on April 1 that construction under a $25,000,000 county broadband grant is nearing closeout and that the project has reached thousands of homes across multiple phases.
Toledo Tel said the grant-funded program comprises two contracts covering phases 1–10. “So far in phases 1 through 3, there were 697 homes installed with duct and fiber,” the presenter said, adding that 317 homes have been completed with active fiber broadband service and 51 of those customers moved their home phone numbers to the new service.
The county and contractor are currently working on contract 2 (phases 4–10). Toledo Tel reported about 60 miles of duct installed in contract 2 and said there are about 2,400 total home passings across the project footprint. “We’ve signed up 1,700 customers to take a drop,” the presenter said, and staff said roughly 20 people have explicitly refused service. For contract 2 the company said roughly 1,040 customers had signed up for duct and fiber, with 367 of those now fully complete.
Why this matters: the project is funded by a large state or federal grant administered through the county; commissioners were told the contract is on track to close in July, after which connecting a home that was not completed before closeout could require the homeowner to pay for hookup costs.
Toledo Tel described technical and logistical challenges. The company said delays and inaccurate locates from CenturyLink/Lumen have caused crews to hit existing copper drops, producing interruptions that sometimes take weeks or months to restore. The presenter said the company has helped several affected customers file complaints with the Federal Communications Commission and the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission.
On service speeds, Toledo Tel said the packages offered to end users range from 25 megabits per second up to 1 gigabit symmetrical. The underlying network, the company said, is capable of higher capacity—“this network that we built, that can do 10 gigs,” the presenter said—but the current retail packages top out at 1 Gbps. Technically, the company said it is deploying XGS-PON, a fiber technology that shares capacity among customers; the presenter described the architecture as sharing a connection among up to 32 customers while maintaining aggregate bandwidth well above individual usage.
Commissioners asked whether all signed-up homes will receive drops by July; Toledo Tel replied crews are on track with construction and expect to complete signups and drops on schedule. Commissioners also asked about the cost to connect a house after the grant closeout. Toledo Tel said if conduit and an open trench are already in place from new construction there may be no customer cost; otherwise customers could face a minimum trenching fee the company estimated at about $500, and more extensive hookups (boring under driveways, etc.) could cost substantially more.
The contractor described ongoing community outreach including radio spots and door-to-door canvassing; staff and contractors said they are encouraging homeowners who are unsure to at least have conduit installed now so a future hookup is less expensive. Toledo Tel and several county staff and commissioners praised project administration and accounting, and the presenter singled out county staff whose work helped keep reimbursements and audits clean.
The presenter and company staff answered commissioners’ questions but no formal county action was required on the update.
Quotes in context: Toledo Tel said, “I think the biggest accomplishment is… the happy customers that we’ve been able to cut over,” referring to residents gaining fiber service for the first time. During cost discussion the company said, “If there is an open trench, there would be no cost to the customer to hook into the service. The only cost would be if we had to open a trench or bore.”
What’s next: the county and contractor expect contract closeout in July and will continue customer outreach until then. After July, homeowners seeking new hookups should expect to pay out-of-pocket if their site is not already prepared for connection.
Ending: Commissioners thanked Toledo Tel, county staff, and contractor personnel for the work and noted particular appreciation for project accounting and operations that supported timely reimbursements and clean audits.
