Nushagak Cooperative is setting a one month window for cable and internet upgrades from July to August. Construction will happen in four parts with expected outages.
Nushagak Cooperative in Dillingham is planning a cable plant upgrade across town. Construction will begin during the second week of July and last through the beginning of August.
CEO Robert Himschoot said partial upgrades have happened in the past, but this is the first major redesign of the network.
“As the internet traffic increased in Dillingham the limitations of the original design have been met," Himschoot said. "We need to not only redesign, we need to upgrade the equipment.”
Telecom Operations manager Trung Vo said construction is organized into four separate zones. The first zone will be around Kanakanak, followed by the Waskey, Wood River and Aspen Road areas. Work will wrap up around the Nerka loop and downtown.
"The plan will be to put in fiber nodes, so it will be fiber from our head end to four different locations in town," Vo said. "From there, it will be the same coax back to the member’s home.”
Internet and cable outages are expected throughout construction in each zone. However, the duration of these outages has yet to be determined.
Himschoot said they plan to inform members of a detailed outline for outages in the network. He expects no alterations to member billing.
“As long as we can stay within the controlled aspect of the outage, we don’t plan on changing the billing at all," he said. "Now if we get outside of controlled aspects, we have something that is extended then we will definitely consider that.”
Nushagak Cooperative does not have specific dates for its construction at this time. After the upgrade is finished, the co-op will add more bandwidth in the fall. They plan to increase internet speeds this winter.
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