Public Wi-Fi available at town square

SANDPOINT — Free public Wi-Fi is now available in Jeff Jones Town Square as the city's fiber Internet plan progresses.

City administrator Jennifer Stapleton announced earlier this month that City Hall was lit with the fiber, so the city's Internet connection is now 100 times faster than it was previously. This week Stapleton announced free Wi-Fi was launched at town square on Dec. 15 and extends to Farmin Park, which will benefit events like the Farmers' Market. 

"It's a little chilly outside these days, depending on the day, to go down and use that, but that is available," Stapleton said.

City officials are working on finalizing a maintenance and operations plan for fiber, as well as a rate structure for leasing the infrastructure to private providers looking to expand service into the community. Ting, a fiber service provider that has been looking at expanding the service in Sandpoint, announced last week it plans to have fiber Internet available to the community in June or July of 2017, which Stapleton said is contingent upon the city finalizing lease rates. Those rates are expected to be finalized in January, she said.

On Monday, Ponderay City Council members voted to allow Fatbeam to purchase one of three underground conduits the city recently put in place for future fiber-optic Internet.

Fatbeam, a fiber installation company, was contracted to build a $2.8 million, 49-mile infrastructure for the Lake Pend Oreille School District's Fiber Wide Area Network throughout the district's 13 locations. LPOSD's district offices are located in the midst of Ponderay's infrastructure along Triangle Drive and Bonner Mall Way, which was installed while the city was constructing a pedestrian and bike path along that route this year.

"When we did that project, thanks to what was happening at the time with what they were doing in Sandpoint, we were aware that it would be a good idea to add the infrastructure during these projects so that we could have that future possibility of expansion without re-digging up the roads," said Ponderay Mayor Steve Geiger.

Sandpoint has been installing the fiber infrastructure underground during road projects for several years, lowering the cost of installation by thousands of dollars.

Geiger said the plan was to lease or sell the conduit, and for the small section in Ponderay, it worked out better for the city to sell it. Fatbeam is purchasing 2,626 feet of conduit at $4 per foot for a total of $10,504. The city's cost to install the conduit was $3.70 per foot, so the city recouped what they put into the infrastructure.

"We want them in our community," Geiger said. "We hope this is the first step in bringing this new infrastructure to our business community."

In an email to the Daily Bee Wednesday, Fatbeam President Greg Green said although it cost more to purchase the conduit than it would for the company to build their own infrastructure to the LPOSD district offices, the section they are purchasing from the city extends Fatbeam's reach further into the Ponderay business community.

"We felt that it could enhance economic development and potential other customers at a later time," Green said.

Green said the company expects to have the "core," which includes all Sandpoint schools, installed by mid-summer of 2017. The remainder of the schools, including Hope, Sagle and Clark Fork areas are expected to be completed by December 2017.

Green said Fatbeam has also been meeting with Sandpoint and county officials to discuss ways of sharing conduit and possibly connecting Fatbeam's fiber to the already constructed Sandpoint city fiber.

"It has been a wonderful experience to work with a city like Sandpoint that understands the value fiber can bring to a growing community," Green said.