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Lee County says fiber build nearly finished for phase one, aims to connect 94% of passings
Summary
PRTC and county officials told the fiscal court the first phase of a 203-mile fiber project is nearly complete and could begin turning on customers within 30–45 days; phase two would extend service to roughly 94% of the county's ~4,000 passings once finished.
Lee County officials received a progress report on a countywide fiber project during the fiscal court meeting. Brian told the court the broadband build includes two phases totaling about 203 miles of fiber: a 78-mile first phase and a 125-mile second phase. "The first phase we've got nearly 65 miles of the 78 complete," Brian said, adding the county expects to begin connecting customers in the next 30 to 45 days.
Brian said the project uses a $19 million loan and grant package from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service and that phase two work is already being planned. He said the engineering team estimates roughly 4,000 "passings" in Lee County (homes, businesses or other buildings that could be connected) and that the project should reach about 3,400–3,500 of those, or about 94% of passings.
The presentation also covered communications plans: the county will livestream election-night results across PRTC channels and social platforms and stage a phased customer rollout rather than a single switch-on. The county encouraged officials to help spread word of the rollout and emphasized that connections and on-screen graphics will be staggered by area as service crews "heat up" each zone.
The court did not take a formal vote on the broadband update; the report was presented as informational. Officials said additional customer-facing scheduling and service-activation details will be released as crews complete strand splicing and testing.
