TDS Telecom continued its flurry of news with the announcement that it will build a network of almost 800 miles in Nampa, Idaho that will support broadband service at 2 Gbps symmetrically.
The network, which will be built with more than $70 million in public/private investment funds, will reach about 42,000 residential addresses and about 3,800 commercial addresses in the community.
Construction will begin by the end of 2021 with the first home to be connected next year. Service will be offered in phases. Residential customers will have access to phone services, TDS TV+, streaming services, program restart capabilities and cloud DVR. Businesses can select phone packages and service bundles, 10G dedicated connections, TDS TV+ and hosted VoIP.
“We are excited to partner with Nampa officials and bring top-quality internet service to the community. We’re confident this significant investment in a key component of infrastructure will benefit Nampa residents for years to come,” TDS Telecom Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs Andrew Petersen said in a press release.
TDS under its own name and as the Potlach Telephone Company has served Idaho since 1988. In addition to Nampa, it has networks in Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls, Hayden, Rathdrum, Juliaetta, Troy, Kendrick, Garden City, Boise and Meridian.
The biggest news TDS has made in recent weeks is that it is moving to a 2 Gbps standard network offering. Indeed, the Nampa announcement is the fourth at this speed. The first – made before the operator declared the move to 2 Gbps for all new projects – was in Billings, MT. The company said two weeks ago that it was granted a municipal franchise to build a 500-mile network that will pass 40,000 addresses in Billings. Work is slated to begin next month.
TDS made the new speed upgrade policy official this week when it made two announcements. One — for the Meridian, Garden City and Boise, Idaho projects — eventually will reach 57,000 addresses. The other project, in Spokane and Spokane County, WA, will reach 88,000 addresses. TDS said that those and subsequent projects would offer 2 Gbps service.
