Business operators and home residents wanting faster and better internet service are looking for high-tech solutions. With web service needed for businesses, people working from home and students doing their homework, there’s a market.
GoNetspeed is starting to build a higher-speed, completely optical-fiber system in Lancaster, Depew and Cheektowaga, and preparing to build in Lockport. The system uses all American-made equipment, bypassing the supply chain issues from overseas.
Local Director of Operations and Service Delivery Chris Brooks said hookups will start soon.
“We're actually going to probably start doing installs within the next few weeks, right here in Depew and will be opening probably several hundred to a thousand homes each week, as we complete construction and testing," Brooks said. "So, all in, we should have this first region completed prior to the end of the year.”
The system uses direct connections numbered for each potential customer.
“We actually dedicate what's known as a port on the pole for every single residence in our build area," Brooks said. "So, if your home or your business falls within our build area, we already have a dedicated port for you. Our engineering team literally drives and walks the streets, looking at homes, looking at duplexes, looking at apartments, counting every single home.”
Lancaster-Depew-Elma Chamber of Commerce Board Chairman Tom Sweeney said it’s important to chamber members and to his own apartment management business.
“The internet today is like electricity was 50 years ago. It's part of the fabric of our business environment and it really needs to be of a quality that can continue to improve and meet the demand," he said.
Brooks says GoNetspeed should have 11,000 customers by that end of the year time for completion in Cheektowaga, Depew and Lancaster.
