La Porte Mayor Tom Dermody said that if there is anything he has learned over the past year, it is the importance of internet access. To keep up with the times and prepare for the future, Surf Broadband Solutions is beginning its first major phase of installing fiber throughout La Porte.
Dermody, the city council, Economic Development Corporation of Michigan City (EDCMC), the entire La Porte Economic Advancement Partnership (LEAP) team, and Surf Broadband Solutions gathered for a groundbreaking in front of Kesling Intermediate School where Surf Broadband Solutions was able to connect with everyone in the city and discuss the fiber installation project that is already underway.
“We’re starting off toward the center of town,” said Patrick Wheeland, CTO of Surf Broadband Solutions. “We’re spending about $5 million to build this out, and it’s our first stage in making La Porte a Gig City. Our initial build is about $5 million and will pass about 3700 homes. Shortly after that, we’re going to connect another several thousand homes starting again from central La Porte and working to the northwest. What we want to do over time is eventually build out the entire city and bring fiber to every single home and business.”
LEAP Board Member and CEO of Qubit Networks Ryan Seaburg has a two-fold understanding of what access to fiber will mean for La Porte. Qubit Networks provides technological services that work in tandem with what Surf Broadband Solutions provides.
“We complement each other,” Seaburg said. “Surf brings bandwidth to a facility to connect those facilities to the rest of the world, and once that is in the facility, we take it from there. We distribute it within the facility. We do wireless, we do switching, and all those things inside. It all goes out through a pipe to Surf, and they take it to the rest of the world.”
Surf Broadband Solutions President Gene Crusie is a long-time friend of Seaburg, so Crusie approached Seaburg when he was investing much of his company’s capital into fiber infrastructure and was looking for a place to do it. Seaburg immediately thought of La Porte and introduced Crusie to Dermody and Bert Cook, executive director of LEAP.
“I kind of politely put Tom in a headlock and said, ‘you need to listen to this guy. This is good stuff.’ Tom jumped on right away,” Seaburg said. “La Porte is very business-friendly, which is great. There’s a bunch of jobs in La Porte that this helped create as well.”
Crusie expressed that he was impressed with how the city has embraced Surf Broadband Solutions and its vision for La Porte. Surf Broadband Solutions’ project to bring fiber to all of La Porte is unique compared to its projects elsewhere and reflects its positive relationship with La Porte.
“We’re doing something we’ve never done before with this $65 gig broadband,” Crusie said. “It’s unheard of. That’s $30 less per month than we’re doing anywhere else. We want to recognize the relationship we have with the community.”
With the increasing number of people doing their work and school remotely, this project is needed for current and future residents and businesses in La Porte.
“As we talk about people working remotely and leaving the big city of Chicago, this is a necessity,” Dermody said. “We can say we are a Gig City, and this is why you should live in La Porte. There isn’t a Gig City around here in Northern Indiana. We want to be that first one that has called ourselves a Gig City. With the fiber that Surf Broadband [Solutions] is able to provide, we are going to be that Gig City.”
To keep up with all the advancements in La Porte, visit LEAP’s website at https://laportepartnership.com/.