Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette Pasty.NET General Manager, Charlie Hopper, discussed his company’s transitioning to fiber optic networking in response to steadily increasing demand for high-speed internet service in Keweenaw County.

EAGLE RIVER — Steadily increasing customer demand for high-speed internet service in Keweenaw County has prompted Pasty.net to take the necessary steps in transitioning to fiber optic technology. Pasty.NET General Manager Charlie Hopper discussed the topic with the Keweenaw County Board at its regular monthly meeting on Wednesday.

Hopper told the board that the area has been targeted with funding from the Rural Digital Opportunities Fund (RDOF) and his company has been in touch with companies involved with extending the fiber optic network to the western Upper Peninsula, including the Keweenaw.

The RDOF is an FCC initiative designed to inject billions of dollars into the construction and operation of rural broadband networks. The fund is targeting rural areas across the country where residents currently lack access to adequate broadband and would deploy high-speed broadband to millions of rural Americans.

“We’ve had to come to a decision here of whether to keep the status quo as it is and just continue serving the people that we serve,” Hopper said, “or get additional bandwidth, because we’ve just had increasing demand.”

To emphasize his point, Hopper told the board he had recently conducted a speed test of the current system at the Keweenaw County Courthouse.

“It’s very clear,” he said. “We need lots of additional bandwidth, with all of the increased use in the summer.”

Adding the courthouse to the fiber network, he said, would increase bandwidth from two megabits to 100.

Hopper said the main question has been how to make the transition to fiber and accomplish “the hand-off to the folks who are coming.”

In discussing the transition, he said, he is discussing the question of how the entire area will make the transition to fiber optics, and what that transition would look like.

Pasty.NET is currently providing a significant number of its customers in Keweenaw County with a 25 megabits per second coverage and preliminary research is strongly suggesting that that number can be increased to 100, over the air, with wireless.

“I would never have believed, when we started this, that it was even physically possible,” he said.

That continues to be Pasty.NET’s model in providing wireless internet service in the Keweenaw.

“We don’t see changing that,” he said, “just upgrading it and getting as much bandwidth out of it as possible, until we do the hand-off to fiber, and we’re hoping that’s going to happen sooner than later.”

Hopper said he has been in touch with two groups involved with the project of bringing fiber to the Copper Country, AEG and ITC.

Atlantic Engineering Group (AEG) is a pioneer and innovator in broadband network deployments, states the AEG website. AEG designs, constructs and manages fiber optic network solutions.

Interstate Telecommunications Cooperative, Inc. (ITC) is a local telecommunications company focused on offering ultra-fast Internet in the rural communities of our region. ITC has been serving the communities of Northeast South Dakota and Southwest Minnesota for over 68 years.

Additionally, Hopper has also been in contact with Highline Internet about gaining additional bandwidth in his company’s southern Marquette County operation, which he said, has already connected fiber optics and “they’re headed this way.”

Highline is constructing a 6,000+ mile fiber-to-the-home network that leverages federal investment from the Rural Digital Opportunities Fund (RDOF) to deliver high speed Internet access for tens of thousands of Michigan residents.

Highline has already built its fiber network covering 204 miles in Delta County and 87 miles in downstate Sanilac County, according to Mar. 2, 2022 businesswire.com article.

“The fiber won’t reach every home or every place in Keweenaw County,” said Hopper, “Their mandate is to reach every property that has at least five houses per mile of density, and there are places here that don’t meet that requirement. But in order to collect the grant funds, that’s their target.”

Highline’s website states that the challenges of population density and geography have long created a disparity in access to Internet connectivity in the Upper Peninsula. This digital divide has implications on educational outcomes, economic development, health care, and civic participation, among others. In the wake of a global pandemic, the hardships faced in these Michigan communities have been felt more strongly than communities that are currently connected to high-speed broadband services.

“And so, we have to decide,” Hopper said, “Do we lead, do we follow, or get out of the way, and we’ve decided to gain additional bandwidth. We’re taking on, by the end of the month, another gigabit of bandwidth to serve users, especially in this area, and by “this area,” I mean, this side of Brockway Mountain, all the way to Five Mile Point Road. The population on this side of the peninsula is really lacking in bandwidth.”

Upgrades are ongoing, and equipment will be adjusted and replaced as needed but increased speed and reach is in the cards for the Keweenaw, says Hopper, “just as soon as we can make these upgrades on the tower and turn up the additional bandwidth.