Ziply Fiber announced Wednesday that it went live to 5,000 households and businesses in the Coeur d’Alene and Hayden Lake area with its gig-speed, fiber-internet network.
Along with the access benchmark on Wednesday, thousands more
residential and business addresses within Ziply’s initial build area will have
access by the end of April, according to a company news release.
“Ziply Fiber is proud to be here in the Coeur d’Alene region
helping serve consumers and businesses who need the reliability of gig-speed
upload and downloads more than ever,” Harold Zeitz, CEO of the Kirkland,
Washington-based Ziply Fiber, said in the news release.
The company hopes to be able to provide service to all of
the 24,000 businesses and residents in its initial build area, which includes
Post Falls, by the end of the year, the release said.
“Area leaders were wonderful partners during the build-out
process and acted quickly to assist us in bringing a blazingly-fast, data-cap
free, fiber internet network to the area for the first time,” Zeitz said.
The fiber network is expected to improve internet
connectivity to put the region on par with larger metropolitan areas. And,
unlike some companies, Ziply Fiber does not currently charge installation fees
or require annual contracts for residential plans, according to the release.
The company is investing $500 million and providing the
fiber network to smaller cities, towns and rural communities across the
Northwest that have been underserved when it comes to internet access.
As Ziply Fiber provides network access to the first
addresses in the Coeur d’ Alene region, it will become the third company project
ready for service in Idaho in less than a year, the company said.
“The city of Coeur d’ Alene is very happy to welcome Ziply
Fiber to our community,” Coeur d’Alene Mayor Steve Widmyer said, “and we look
forward to the quality service they will provide our citizens through their
investment in our city.”
