As the end of construction season approaches, Paul Bunyan Communications is on track to complete its planned broadband expansion projects across parts of Itasca and St. Louis Counties before freeze out. The following is a status of Paul Bunyan Communications Broadband Expansion projects.
Itasca County: • City of Coleraine – Construction is completed with fiber splicing taking place. Services should become available in October. • City of Bovey – Construction has started and is over 50 percent completed. Services should become available this winter. • Bearville Township – Construction is done. Fiber splicing is in progress. Services should become available this winter.
St. Louis County: • Sandy, Pike, and Wuori townships – Construction is done, and fiber splicing is 75 percent done. Services should be available by the end of September. • Alango and Owens townships – Construction is done and fiber splicing has started. Services should become available this winter. • Angora Township – Construction is done and fiber splicing has started. Services should become available this winter. • Balkan Township – Construction has started and is expected to be completed by mid-October. Services should become available this winter. • French Township – Construction is done. Fiber splicing has started. Services should become available this winter. • Great Scott Township and unorganized township north of Great Scott – Construction will start later this month and is expected to be completed by mid-November. Services should be available by end of winter.
Once the network is operational in an area, customers who signed up will be contacted to schedule service installations.
Sign up now to ensure fiber optic connection. Residents and businesses in these expansion areas are encouraged to sign up for service now, before construction crews move on to ensure the fiber optic connection is brought up to the location. That can be done online at gigazone.com, by phone, or in person at the Grand Rapids Customer Service and Technology Center.
Once the network is live, customers will have access to Paul Bunyan’s GigaZone services, including high-speed fiber-optic internet with speeds up to 10 gigabytes and dependable, low-cost unlimited local and long-distance GigaZone voice services.
Paul Bunyan Communications has the region’s largest all fiber optic network with over 6,000 square miles throughout most of Beltrami County and portions of Aitkin, Cass, Hubbard, Itasca, Koochiching, and St. Louis counties. The cooperative provides homes and businesses GigaZone, broadband high speed internet service with upload and download speeds up to 10 gigabytes, digital voice services, and managed IT services. The cooperative is also northern Minnesota’s certified Apple Service Center and an authorized DIRECTV dealer.