LAWTON, Iowa | Heath Mallory, general manager for Wiatel, the communications cooperative serving one dozen Northwest Iowa communities, smiles while examining a graph detailing the gigabit usage per month per subscriber in the Wiatel territory, which stretches roughly from north of Kingsley to south of Castana.
"In October 2012, the gigabit usage per month per subscriber came to 8.9," Mallory says. "In January 2016, that number was up to 70.6."
That's nearly a tenfold increase in about 3.5 years. The eye-popping trend has caused Mallory, his staff and the board of directors at Wiatel to embark on an ambitious $25-million effort to extend fiber optic services to each commercial and residential site in the Wiatel footprint.
Digging for lines begins this spring in Moville. The project is expected to advance in three annual stages. Those stages, however, may overlap, depending upon the rate and efficiency of the work.
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Mallory, the Wiatel leader for the past 11 years, says several factors have come into play, all of which have necessitated this move to a 100-percent fiber optic network for communications services.
No. 1: The demand for more bandwidth and faster Internet speed from customers is growing. Customer use of online video, music and other multimedia content has mushroomed over the past few years, a trend that isn't expected to back off, or slow. In order for Wiatel to be able to provide services customers demand at rates customers expect, network improvements must be tackled.
No. 2: Government requirements regarding the provisioning of broadband services have increased and will continue to require Wiatel to invest in the network.
No. 3: The age of Wiatel's existing copper network connecting most homes and businesses is at a point where costs to maintain the network will become prohibitive. While this copper portion of the network has performed very well, its service life is approaching an end.
"Our copper plant gives us good speed," Mallory says, citing figures of 20 megabits to 70 percent of the customer base. "Those speeds are adequate. The thing is: People are not using less. More and more people are downloading and streaming video all the time, which places loads on the network.
"The average need for our customers has really grown," he concludes. "If we didn't start now, we'd be behind when we did begin."
Wiatel will finance the 100-percent fiber optic installation through a mix of cash on-hand and low-interest debt, a portion of which may come via a USDA loan program for rural communities upgrading broadband services.
"Our aim is to get everyone wireless," Mallory says. "The question will be this: Will the technology be there yet?"
Once the project is done, Wiatel will be able to provide identical services to all cooperative members, regardless of residence. The services include world-class Internet speeds, newly designed cable television products, telephone services and a variety of other offerings.
"We'll keep operations as status-quo as possible," says Mallory, who has overseen the construction of a new office space and the construction/development of Wiatel's Solutions Center in Moville within the past decade. "I'm happy with the timing. When we're done (in 2018, if not earlier), we'll be able to deliver any product or service to any of our customers."
In addition to the 100-percent fiber optic upgrade, construction continues at The Ridge, a residential development spearheaded by Wiatel nearly three years ago. To date, there are 14 of 34 lots sold in the project's first phase, all located just northwest of The Meadows Country Club, Iowa's top nine-hole golf course in 2012.
"We'd like to begin on phase two of The Ridge this year," Mallory says. "That second phase has larger lots, which many seem to find more desirable."
The second phase, which will see development west of the current area of construction along Teratam Drive in Moville, contains 33 lots.
Mallory praises the board of directors serving Wiatel for having the vision to see The Ridge through. While the cooperative has invested conservatively through the past several decades and still owes zero debt, the neighborhood development in Moville served as one way to realize a return on investment while simultaneously growing the Wiatel customer base in the cooperative's largest community.
