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By MARK MILLER
Bluffton is getting closer to becoming a “FIOS City” as Adams Wells Telecom anticipates that “Phase III” of their installation of fiber optic lines will be completed by the end of August.
The local company, part of Craigville Telephone Company, completed Phase II earlier this year. Phase II includes the area north of Indiana 124 to County Road 250 North, west to Indiana 116.
“This will complete the entire north side of Bluffton completed by this summer,” reported Lee VonGunten, general manager of the company. The only exception in that area is the Mobile Manor area.
Phase III also includes what is called the West Business Corridor, which includes Adams Street south from Indiana 124 to the new Indiana Bio-Energy plant, and Western Avenue to the county jail.
“We promised IBE we’d have fiber optic to them by the time they start producing ethanol,” he added.
The service affords companies and residential customers both high speed internet and regular phone service. He plans to add cable television options in the future.
Adams Wells Telecom is a division of Craigville Telephone Co. The firm completed Phase I of their project in mid-2007, which included the Willowbrook, Sutton Circle, Bell Brook and North Oak subdivisions as well as Ind. 1 from Dustman Rd. to County Road 250N.
VonGunten says this totals about 1,150 locations — homes and businesses — that will have fiber optic access. That’s about 1⁄3 of the city.
“We’d love to get all of Bluffton covered with fiber-optics,” VonGunten said. “But there’s some economics at work here. We’ll need to pause a bit and get our breath, get people hooked up in the areas we have cable.”
VonGunten estimates the remaining area would need to be done in three more phases that would need at least another year of work.
“The Adams-Wells Telecom fiber project represents another very important piece of the Wells County economic development puzzle,” said Mike Row, Wells County’s Economic Development Director. “Communication remains a cornerstone of success for 21st Century businesses and this project offers our business community opportunities to remain competitive in an ultra-competitive global economy.”