Verizon boosting rural service

OROFINO, Idaho – The Verizon company plans to improve telecommunications services in North Idaho’s Clearwater County with new technology that could speed up Internet access, improve cell phone reception and shorten the time it takes to fix power outages.

The $3.5 million project was prompted by complaints to the Idaho Public Utilities Commission and could lead to better service as soon as the end of the year.

Clearwater County residents met with Verizon officials Friday as the company shared its plans to update services through new fiber-optic technology installed from Moscow, Idaho, east to the smaller towns of Orofino and Weippe.

Teri Ploharz-Bolling, a financial consultant for Edward Jones who lives about six miles outside of Orofino, said she now experiences problems with her telephone service and her Internet connection, which sometimes disconnect for no apparent reason.

Geoff Thumma, an Everett, Wash.-based network manager for the company, said the new fiber-optic line should handle eight times more traffic when transmitting data than the old system.

Businesses, a hospital and schools in the region will be required to install new cable lines that can hold higher volumes of data in order to use the new system, which is scheduled to begin operating in December.

Thumma said the upgrades will also allow for the expansion of cell phone service and improve the system that helps locate sources of power outages and Verizon officials said disruptions during these outages will likely be shortened to between one to five hours.

Verizon announced the improvements after Clearwater County residents brought complaints to the Idaho Public Utilities Commission, including an allegation that service was intermittent or nonexistent from June 12 to June 14 last year at the Clearwater Valley Hospital in Orofino.

Another complaint by an assistant fire chief for the Upper Fords Creek Rural Fire Department said emergency 911 service was disabled Sept. 1 and not repaired until Sept. 4.