Great Plains Communications To Bring Fiber To Chadron In Privately-Funded Project

     Great Plains Communications has announced a privately-funded project to bring fiber optic cable to all of the city of Chadron within 3 years.

Construction will begin next spring on the 4-phase project that may see phases overlap.

     Vice President of Government Affairs John Barrett says Great Plains is excited to help make Chadron a fiber-forward community ready for future growth and opportunity.

Great Plains Director of Operations Chris Wulf says the fiber-to-home and business network will provide symmetrical speeds – equal upload and download – of up to one Gig per second for residential customers and 1o Gigs for businesses.

      The company currently has 10 miles of fiber in Chadron, but still uses coaxial cable for most of its phone, internet, and cable tv service.

      Wulf says coax cable can’t deliver what are generally considered broadband speeds, so the project will hang fiber from NPPD utility poles next to the existing coax, then remove the coax when each of 4 areas of the city is completed. 

     Wulf says it’s a process the company used last fall in several communities, including Gordon, funded by federal-state grant programs..

Great Plains is also doing nearly identical projects in Broken Bow and McCook. Wulf says that like Chadron, they don’t qualify for the grant programs used for the projects in Gordon and the other smaller towns.

When the coax cable is removed, Great Plains will no longer offer traditional cable tv. It will be replaced by GPC iTV, a streaming video service.

   Mayor Mark Warner pushed to use federal COVID recovery funds to bring broadband to Chadron and says the city is excited at the next step in its long-standing partnership with Great Plains and appreciates the direct investment to make the network happen.