Thank you to the OPALCO Board for their strong leadership
— from Dan Burke, for Rock Island —
With just over one year of being in business, Rock Island Communications has overcome numerous challenges, and has connected close to a thousand islanders to fast, stable and scalable broadband.
“In just over twelve months, the Rock Island team has installed over 500,000 feetof fiber (over 94 miles) on several islands, and in a wide range of challenging geographic conditions. We have 15 LTE wireless sites online now, giving us the ability to serve over 1,500 homes and businesses. We have 16 active neighborhood construction projects underway, and over 700 fiber connections on deck that will keep our construction teams busy into 2017,” said Alan Smith, SVP
of Engineering for Rock Island. “We have completed 11 community fiber builds to date representing hundreds of families, students, seniors and businesses who now enjoy the benefits of modern broadband.”
After incorporating in early 2015, Rock Island set out with a three-part charge to build out a fiber network, deploy a countywide LTE wireless network and provide communication support to all first-responders. With additional operational
challenges such as purchasing and integrating a local ISP and its employees, andexpanding the Rock Island staff and systems to be able to achieve its objectives, the team had a lot on its plate. Rock Island met these challenges, and was able to complete several large-scale projects in its first year of operation, supplying hundreds of locals with modern Internet connectivity.
“I want to thank the OPALCO Board for showing its commitment to San Juan County by advancing this forward-thinking initiative, and thus laying the foundation for improved emergency communications and greater economic vitality,” said Angela Saxe, Board member and Fiber Group Organizer for the Spring Point HOA. “Your leadership is setting an example that I hope will be followed by other co-ops across the nation. Broadband is quickly becoming a must-have utility. I can think of no one better equipped to deliver it than OPALCO and Rock Island.”
The Century Link outage of 2013 showed the general public the extent of the communication crisis in San Juan County. Islanders demanded something be done about it, and it was the OPALCO Board that made the decision to develop and
implement a solution that would benefit the entire community. This decision has already changed the social, economic and political future of our islands. Broadband benefits everyone.
Rock Island is also in the process of rolling out the similar assistance program as OPALCO’s “Energy Assist” program, providing an equal discount to qualified participants on their monthly internet service.
“Rock Island would like to thank the OPALCO Board and management lead by Foster Hildreth for their leadership, courage and determination turning a broadband dream into a reality for all members of this community,” said Gerry Lawlor, EVP of Rock Island. “Without the strong leadership of board officers Jim Lett, Vince Dauciunas and Dr. Jerry Whitfield, none of this would be possible. I hope all who vote in this Board election vote for candidates who support this critical broadband effort.”
Groups and Individuals can learn more about getting connected to Rock Island’s fiber or LTE network online at rockisland.com.
About Rock Island Communications
Rock Island Communications provides modern, scalable and reliable broadband services to homes and businesses in San Juan County. They are a wholly-owned subsidiary of Orcas Power & Light Cooperative. For more information, visit rockisland.com.
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Broadband benefits everyone. This statement in the above article is not really true. I live at the end of 1/3 mile road surrounded by woods on Lopez. There are no other homes nearby to share expenses with, so I don’t expect to be able to afford fiber in my lifetime. And LTE doesn’t work because of the trees. Now that RockIsland considers DSL “Legacy” technology, I worry that they will cease to support it in the future and then I will out of luck. So, yes those who can get either fiber or LTE will benefit. But I believe there are still lots like me who will be left out.
Ann: I can understand your frustration if indeed your home is outside of the areas that can be served – but I encourage you to keep checking with Rock Island as the infrastructure expands out. However, you do benefit because first responders will be able get your call and be able to communicate with a physician to coordinate your family’s emergency care. You benefit because your neighbors will be able to telecommute and earn a better wage, keeping island families on Lopez where they are an integral part of the community. You benefit because without a robust and modern connection to each other and the rest of the world, our communities would continue to lose good people who otherwise couldn’t afford or manage to live here, further stretching the affordability gap as fewer people remain to share the higher costs of groceries, utilities and services. You benefit because our libraries, schools and cultural centers can access resources beyond our shores.
Suzanne, Libraries, Schools and Cultural Centers were already connected to the fibre by Opalco. Rock Island had nothing to do with that.
This is a great ad for Rock Island Internet. I have been a relatively happy customer of Rock Island for 16 years now.
However, in my neighborhood, it seems likely that it will be years more before the neighborhood association decides to pull fiber up here, even though we have great density. And we’re currently not offered LTE. And the CenturyTel/RockIsland DSL service, which used to be quite decent, has become increasingly sluggish, delivering not nearly the bits I have been paying for.
So, I called up Orcas Online the other day, they were up to the house quickly, and with very little fuss I now have access over their wireless connection offering to very decent speeds, at a very competitive price. It seems reliable and not suffering from the slowdowns and interruptions I was experiencing with the DSL from Rock Island.
Let’s not forget there are other service providers here in the islands than Rock Island, and they are run by locals too.
Bunny Trail Question for the Rock Island folks – what form will this enhanced first responder communications service take, what is the coverage area, and when will we be seeing it in our hands?
So far it is only benefiting rich neighborhoods I’m only a mile from Eastsound and most likely it will not benefit me in my lifetime
for those of us luddites who don’t know “tech talk lingo,” – what is LTE?
Hi B. Sadie –
LTE is an acronym for Long Term Evolution; LTE is a wireless telecommunications standard or protocol developed from the GSM/UMTS standards (GSM = Global System for Mobile Communications, UMTS = Universal Mobile Teleommunications System) – it is primarily promulgated by the European Telecommunications Standard Institute.
If you want to learn about LTE and how it fits in to the global development of wireless technologies, the Wiki page is a good place to start. Sometimes Google is your friend:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTE_%28telecommunication%29
For practical purposes, LTE is an improvement of data transfer speed over 2G and 3G GSM cellular data networks – which is why you might see a cellular company touting that their network features 4G LTE speeds.