Broadband companies offering more Internet options for Yuba-Sutter area
Two groups are planning to expand high-speed Internet use in the Mid-Valley — one targeting Central Valley schools, the other taking to the Yuba County airwaves.
A set of three recently installed transmitters marks the entry of Open Range Communications Inc., a Denver-area company rolling out a wireless broadband service for Marysville, Linda and Olivehurst. Meanwhile, a team of eight small telecommunications firms is stretching its ambitions wider, announcing a plan for a $66 million fiber-optic web to speed Internet service for schools and libraries in Yuba, Sutter and 16 other counties.
Open Range's transmission towers became ready for service Aug. 13, according to Marysville sales manager Michael Spence, who said the firm held a promotional event for its service Saturday in Marysville.
The company will deliver online access through WiMAX, a fourth-generation cellular system also being rolled out by Sprint Nextel Corp. for advanced cell phones. Open Range customers will use receivers that also permit telephone calls through the Internet and serve as Wi-Fi routers to extend the signal through a home or office.
Yuba County is similar to most other markets Open Range already serves, Spence said Thursday.
"We're bridging digital divide; we're not focusing on the cities, we're focusing on rural communities," he said last week of the company, which operates in 17 states.
Open Range's Mid-Valley debut is supported by a loan program from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that supports the creation of high-speed online services in rural communities.
Federal funding also is the prime mover for the Central Valley Independent Network, the consortium planning to tie together a swath of inland California in a 1,400-mile web of fiber-optic lines. The companies would install 720 miles of new fiber while using already installed but unused "dark fiber" in other regions.
The network on Wednesday announced it won $46 million of stimulus funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Pine Grove-based CVIN is raising another $13 million and seeking $6 million in state grants to complete the system, according to group president David Douglas.
The Mid-Valley's portion of the fiber-optic ring would extend from Colusa through Yuba City and Marysville and east to Nevada City. County education offices and public libraries, as well as Yuba College in Linda, would use the lines as the backbone of their Internet access.
Completion is slated for spring 2013 for the CVIN network, which is to extend as far south as Kern County.
CONTACT Howard Yune at 749-4708 or hyune@appealdemocrat.com
