C&L Discusses Broadband for County

RISON - The Cleveland County Quourm Court unanimously approved a resolution Monday night supporting the C&L Electric Cooperative’s effort to secure grant money to bring fiber optic internet service to unserved and underserved portions of the county.David Vondran, CEO and general manager of the C&L Electric Cooperative, told the court during its regular monthly meeting that the cooperative is currently in the process of running fiber optic cable from its operations center at Star City to the substations throughout its eightcounty service area.Vondran described this network for the substations as being “the backbone” that will feed fiber optic service lines to residential and business customers throughout the county. He explained C&L Electric is seeking the grant money to establish those service lines to residents and businesses.The C&L Electric board approved spending up to $15 million to have the fiber optic cable ran to the substations. Vondran said the cooperative expects to spend more than $72 million to run fiber optic cable to residential and business customers within its eight-county service area.Most of the electric cooperatives across the state already have fiber optic networks in place that allow their customers to access high-speed broadband internet service. Vondran said the service being offered through C&L will be called C&L Broadband Connect, and the internet service will be provided through Diamond State Networks, which is a broadband company owned by the state’s electric cooperatives.Fiber optic cable is considered to be one of the most efficient ways to deliver high-speed internet service since the speed does not diminish at any point point across the cable. In other words, the speeds delivered at the source of the internet signal are the same as they are at the end of the cable, regardless of the distance.Vondran said C&L Broadband Connect will offer customers three le...