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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Project to expand Internet access nears completion

Marcus White
Posted 9/26/18

ORR— Residents in Orr may soon have expanded Internet access, pending the completion of ongoing upgrades by the local telecommunications provider, CenturyLink.

CenturyLink currently has crews …

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Project to expand Internet access nears completion

Posted

ORR— Residents in Orr may soon have expanded Internet access, pending the completion of ongoing upgrades by the local telecommunications provider, CenturyLink.

CenturyLink currently has crews in place installing “Very-high-byte Digital Subscriber Lines” or VDSL at the end points of new lines that connect to the company’s main fiber optic line that passes through the region.

CenturyLink installed the main line several years ago but did not add feeder lines that would allow residents in Orr and Nett Lake to have adequate speed and data capacity. Residents found themselves unable to connect to the Internet, including businesses and institutions such as the Orr Center. “We’re considered an unserved area here,” Orr City Clerk Cheri Carter told the Timberjay last November. “When new people come into town, they’re told they can’t get Internet.”

The latest upgrades, which should be completed in another four-to-six weeks, should provide residents living within a two to three-mile distance [from the main line] access to the fiber optics cable already in place, according Bois Forte IT Manager Randy Long.

The current lack of service has constrained the community, Long said. Even those who have been able to connect to an Internet provider have been restricted to speeds of on;y up to 10 megabytes per second (mbps).

The new service, once completed, will provide residents speeds of up to 40 mbps.

Even with the project completion looming, residents won’t be able to connect right away. Long said residents and businesses that lay within the radius of the line will be contacted after the completion— which doesn’t have a concrete date, yet.

CenturyLink declined to give comment and the story, and said they are reserving any public information on the project until it is completed later this year.