Ouray County, Colorado – Ouray County has engaged the services of Deeply Digital through a competitive bid process for the purpose of constructing a 47-mile underground fiber construction project from the City of Montrose located within Montrose County to the Ouray County Public Health Agency in Ouray County. This project includes the installation of new fiber to provide services to unserved areas and to also provide redundancy to areas where fiber currently exists. The installation of this middle-mile fiber will ensure that the Ouray County Public Health Agency, Ouray County, its citizens, the municipalities and the region will be afforded the opportunity to access high speed internet services, allowing speeds up to 10 gigabits per second by and through internet service providers.
Initially, the Department of Local Affairs (DOLA), awarded grant funding to Region 10 League for Economic Development (Region 10) in the amount of $625,000 to assist with fiber connectivity for the Ouray County region. Ouray County, City of Ouray and the Town of Ridgway in partnership with Region 10 have been working together over the past several years to find a way to bring this project to fruition. In an effort to seek the additional funding necessary to make this project a reality, in 2018 Ouray County applied to the Colorado Hospital Association through the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) requesting funding to construct the middle-mile fiber. The route proposed would begin at a carrier neutral location (CNL) located in the City of Montrose, travel south to Colona, southwesterly traversing County Road 1 over Log Hill, to CNLs located within the Town of Ridgway, then southbound along County Road 17 to the Ouray County Public Health Agency. Ouray County was successful in its funding efforts and was awarded a subsidy from USAC for Phase 1, in the amount of $1,572,094. This subsidy award coupled with DOLA funding and additional supplemental DOLA funding recently awarded, has provided the funding necessary to begin Phase 1 construction of the middle-mile fiber build to the Ouray County Public Health Agency. A Phase 2 subsidy request is currently under review and notification should be received in the spring of 2020.
The Ouray County Public Health Agency (OCPHA) Fiber Project entails an open access portion which will allow the new circuit to connect to two new Carrier Neutral Locations (CNLs) in both the Town of Ridgway and City of Ouray. Both CNLs are newly constructed by Deeply Digital through an agreement with Region 10 and will serve as a location for other providers to host equipment and utilize the new circuit. In the long run, this open access fiber is intended to benefit the residents and businesses located within Ouray County.
OCPHA will own the middle mile fiber asset. However, Region 10 will manage the excess capacity fiber (~ 90% of the fiber installed) through an agreement with OCPHA. Interested internet service providers (ISPs) will be able to lease fiber strands though Region 10 to provide services to homes and businesses within the service area and along the service route.
For information about the OCPH Fiber Project Construction Project, please call 970-249-8848 or visit www.deeplydigital.com/OCPH.