Seattle-based FTTH pioneer, GigabitNow, announces their first network in California

GigabitNow has commenced construction on the largest community- owned fiber to the home build in Sonoma County, connecting the underserved residents of the Sea Ranch community to the fastest Internet speeds in the region. Where other telcos and Internet service providers turned the community away citing a lack of growth potential, an isolated development, and difficult terrain, GigabitNow has stepped in to provide a state of the art fiber network with reliable speeds to every house in the community.

“We chose GigabitNow because they have experience in building and operating community fiber networks. GBN was willing to work with myself, and the Sea Ranch community, every step of the way in this endeavor”, said Frank Bell, Sea Ranch resident and association community manager. “I am beyond thrilled to see that fast and reliable fiber internet will be available to Sea Ranch residents.”

How does one convince a relatively comfortable community of 2,200 homes to undertake such a complicated project? With local cable services proving unreliable and DSL Internet being available to just a small portion of the community, and even then with very slow speeds, residents had tolerated enough of their subpar Internet which was often blamed on their coastal location. After hearing their frustrations echoed amongst neighbors, a group of residents banded together to form the Sea Ranch Telecom subcommittee. After an exhaustive effort to find a solution, the community organization concluded that the only practical option was for The Sea Ranch to develop its own broadband network. GigabitNow was selected to manage the construction and Internet service operations of the community-owned network, Sea Ranch Connect.

Mr. Bell breathes easier knowing that Sea Ranch has partnered with GigabitNow. The community Internet service provider, which is managing the construction and supporting services throughout the fiber network, has a history of coming to the rescue of communities stuck without viable options. GigabitNow rescued its first fiber network in Seattle in 2004, the Highlands Fiber Network (HFN), which sates the Internet needs of local tech giant employees’ and homeowners alike across over 4,000 homes and businesses in Issaquah, Washington.

“GigabitNow is focused on building and operating high-quality community-owned fiber networks, like Sea Ranch Connect”, said Steve Milton, GigabitNow’s CEO. “We are excited to bring gigabit fiber connectivity to the Sea Ranch community along with the service reliability our other customers have grown to expect from us.”

GigabitNow expects to launch their active gigabit fiber service in the fall of 2016 adding the northern California community to its family of community fiber networks across the west coast of the United States.

For more information about GigabitNow call 1-866-748-8066, or visit the website at www.gigabitnow.com. For more information about Sea Ranch Connect, visit www.searanchconnect.org.

---