TSS Awarded JeffCo Broadband ARPA Grant

Internet access in Whitehall, and everyplace else for that matter, is going to continue to grow as more and more Internet services and streaming sources are available to our schools, businesses, home businesses, and households.

Fiber is the only Internet medium at the moment that is essentially “future-proof” as the fiber itself has virtually unlimited bandwidth capability. Some technologists even go so far as to say “if it isn’t fiber it isn’t broadband.” And most agree it needs to be fiber end-to-end from the Internet source to the Internet user. Besides speed, fiber to the home has the advantages of no interference or weather problems, plus low latency, high security, and the capability for very high Internet speeds in the future.

TeleSystem Services (TSS) installed the first Whitehall Fiber-To-The-H0me (FTTH) system along East First Street in about 2017. This provided a direct fiber connection for many Whitehall business and home users all the way to the transcontinental fiber Internet carriers in Helena. This has been a very successful project with few outages and delivering demonstrated symmetrical Internet speeds all the way up to 850-Mbits at points along the system. This is the fastest Internet available in this area. Thanks to all the many great Letters of Support from the existing users, TSS was able to secure ARPA Broadband expansion funds.

TSS was just awarded a Jefferson County Broadband ARPA grant to expand our initial system. This will allow us to expand to homes and businesses along the full length of 2nd Street and to initially connect about 18 homes and businesses along the route. The grant is only for actual materials and trenching needed to complete the project installation. TSS has to provide the labor to install, test, and activate the system as our part.

TSS plans to begin this project early this summer and we plan to have most of the construction done by this Winter. We will be using local contractors to complete the installation work as we did before.

We will be able to connect additional homes later on anytime along the route, but the installation won’t be paid for by the grant. If you want to be one of the 18 homes along 2nd Street that is included in the grant, please call 287-5308 or text us at 406-565-9319 and let us know your name, address, phone number, and the best time to contact you.

This expansion project meets the new federally recommended Internet speeds of 100 Mbits down and up and at low latency. These speeds are fast enough for an entire household to all use all their Internet devices simultaneously.

TSS plans on seeking other grants to eventually bring fiber to all areas of Whitehall and the immediate surrounding rural areas.