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Fast, affordable Internet access for all.
Spencer, Iowa, Keeps Building
By
on
This month, Spencer Municipal Utilities (SMU) will continue to expand the town’s fiber network. The steady incremental build will bring better Internet access to residents, business, and municipal facilities in the northwest Iowa town.
Incremental Approach
The Spencer Daily Reporter wrote about how SMU is connecting more residents with Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) one step at a time. The municipal utility broke the project into four phases.
Phases I and II included 2,700 homes and businesses. Phase III, which begins this month, will impact more than 1,100 homes and businesses. Phase IV will finish extending FTTH service to the rest of the city.
The project will replace the existing telecommunications infrastructure installed in the late 1990s. Curtis Dean of the Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities described the network's history in our Community Broadband Bits podcast from 2012.
Evolving Needs, Changing Technology
Spencer Municipal Utilities marketing and community relations manager, Amanda Gloyd, said to the Spencer Daily Reporter:
"Just like internet service has evolved from dial up to digital service lines and cable modem, fiber will give customers the next level of service to continue to improve the way they live, work, and play and we are continuing to build out this service throughout the community of Spencer."
Spencer, like many other small towns, chose to invest in Internet network infrastructure so residents and businesses in this rural area could get fast, affordable, reliable services. Subscribers appreciate the excellent customer service that comes with their local, publicly owned network.
Before We Leave
In keeping with an Internet tradition, we want to mention Spencer's other sensation, Dewey the library cat. The little orange fluff-ball ended up in the public library's drop-box in 1988, and he was adopted by the library staff as "supervisor of staff." Dewey Readmore Books went on to become the publicity darling of the library cat tradition. He was featured in cat magazines, documentaries, and (of course) books.
Even though Dewey has passed on, cute cat videos will live forever, and Spencer's awesome FTTH will help keep his memory alive.
Photo of Dewey courtesy of the Spencer Public Library
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