Fiber-optic cable installed

Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.

If you’ve been wondering about the construction activity on the south side of U.S. 90 just west of town, Comcast/Xfinity is reportedly installing fiber-optic cable for faster and more reliable Internet connections.
Commissioner Betsy Barfield informed the commission of the ongoing work at the most recent board meeting on Thursday, Oct. 7, saying that Comcast was installing the two-way fiber-optic cable to upgrade its service.
Barfield added that like CenturyLink, Comcast relied on an economic formula to determine when and where it was feasible to provide or expand service, based on the number of residents in a given area and other pertinent factors.
“We are installing more fiber throughout our network by replacing some coaxial cable with fiber lines,” reads a current Comcast/Xfinity online statement, adding that the construction activity will cause some intermittent interruptions in service.
Comcast in the past had told locals who had asked about bringing fiber-optic cable to Monticello that it wasn’t feasible, as the area lacked sufficient residences and the per-foot cost to install the cable was extremely high. What has changed since to prompt the company to install the cable now is anyone’s guess, as it’s almost impossible to make contact with live company representatives.
The work crews that have been installing the line along West Washington Street confirmed last week that Comcast/Xfinity was behind the project and that the line was coming from Tallahassee and would go as far east as Felix Street. At least to the best of their knowledge, they said. There are also reports of fiber-optic cable being buried along the Mamie Scott Drive area and in the vicinity of the Tractor Supply Company on U.S. 19 South.
When the work will be completed and how soon the upgraded service may be available is an unknown at present, however.
The work crews are using machines with horizontal directional drills to bore a four-inch running hole underground that reportedly extended in sections from 400 to 500 feet.
Orange pipe was then being pulled through the holes, inside of which pipe the cable was to be inserted.
“In the future, we’ll be able to offer you even more reliable service, greater network capacity and more gig speeds to more homes down the line,” reads the generic Comcast/Xfinity statement. “That means more downloading, more streaming and more gaming.”
For the present, however, residents will simply have to wait and see what happens.
Comcast and Xfinity have been different brands of the same company since 2010. Xfinity is the TV and Internet service providers for consumers, while Comcast owns Xfinity and other brands.