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Coeur d'Alene company receives federal contract
to expand and improve internet access and
service in Boundary County along with other
areas of Idaho Panhandle |
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September 12, 2018 |
A Coeur d’Alene internet service provider,
whose market includes Boundary County, has
received a large federal award to finance major
upgrades in internet speed and access to areas
of Boundary County and other parts of the Idaho
panhandle that have limited or no internet
service.
Mike Kennedy, President of Coeur d’Alene-based
Intermax Networks, announced that Intermax was
awarded a contract for $11.5 million from the
Federal Communications Commission to expand
broadband
 internet service in rural areas of
Boundary, Bonner, Kootenai, and Benewah counties
of Idaho, and Spokane County in Washington.
Mr. Kennedy explained that funding for the
contract comes from the Universal Service Fund,
a small fee that all cellphone users pay with
their monthly bills. The money for the contract
is spread over ten years. “This contract will
allow our company, with about 3,000 customers,
to invest more rapidly in expensive
infrastructure, which in turn will ramp up
speeds for many rural users from snail’s pace to
roadrunner,” said Mr. Kennedy. He projected that
Intermax could potentially quadruple its
customer base over the span of the program.
He stressed his belief that some of the biggest
impact of better and faster internet service in
the rural areas targeted for upgrade will be in
economic development and in educational
improvement. He went on to give some examples of
some of the benefits he foresees with faster
internet in North Idaho’s rural areas. “Schools
in the areas will have access to educational
content that now is out of reach. Kids who can’t
visit the new Idaho State Historical Museum in
Boise, for instance, will at least be able to
take video tours of the fabulous facility.
Lectures from renowned educators can be
live-streamed into classrooms.”
“What has us really excited are the doors that
will open for rural entrepreneurs and businesses
whose potential is now throttled by limited or
non-existent internet access. The ability to
conduct e-commerce will expand dramatically. As
our economy shifts away from bricks and mortar
workplaces toward digital domains, an increasing
number of jobs will depend upon high-speed
internet capability — and Intermax will do its
part to provide that. Best of all, some
exceedingly talented people won’t have to
abandon their rural roots to make a good
living,” Mr. Kennedy said.
He went on to clarify that it will take a few
years for most people living in the affected
rural areas to begin to receive the benefits of
this program because of the buildout that will
be required. As far as exactly how many years,
he says it will depend on each location. The
funding for the program won’t be available until
mid-2019. This is a 10-year award, with the
funding allocated equally across the 10 years.
However, Mr. Kennedy says they don’t plan to
allocate the buildout equally across 10 years.
“We’re going to front load as much as we can in
the first year and following years. We believe
it will take us five years to build out all the
necessary infrastructure. Our goal is to have it
done within five years.”
What is his estimate for the buildout to be
completed in the Bonners Ferry area? “I’m
comfortable to say that in that area, maybe 18
months to two years. That would include
improvement in the current system and taking
internet access into new areas.”
In Boundary County, Intermax service is
currently a wireless system. All of the funding
Intermax will receive from this award is
designated for providing wireless microwave
internet access, at a speed of 25 Mbps download
and upload speed of 3 Mbps. Mr. Kennedy stressed
that even though internet access supplied will
be via microwave wireless, “Our backbone from
Seattle to Sandpoint is all fiber. That last
mile or so to the houses is microwave LTE.”
He predicts that the price to individuals and
families in Boundary County won’t change much
when this new internet system is built and put
into use. “Currently our average monthly bill to
supply internet access to a home is $59. Our
goal is to keep it at that amount, yet still
provide more bandwidth.”
Intermax has provided a map of the Idaho
panhandle with areas marked in green. A copy of
that map is included with this article. “The
green areas on the map are the areas for which
we have received funding support,” he said.
Those are the specific areas that are targeted
for these improvements of greater speed and
better access. But he goes on to say that even
areas on the map not marked in green will
benefit from these improvements. “I think they
will improve also as we improve the backbone of
our system and the capacity of the system
throughout,” he said.
(Story continues below the following map)
Asked if his company had worked with any local
Boundary County agencies or government entities
in putting together the proposal for this
funding from the Federal Communications
Commission, he replied that they had no formal
association with any local agency. “We were
under a very strict non-communication agreement
stipulated by the FCC,” he said.
There are many areas in Boundary County that
have exceptionally slow internet speed, or no
internet access at all. The aim of this FCC
contract with Intermax is to improve that
landscape dramatically, and Mr. Kennedy is
hoping we see those improvements in Boundary
County and throughout the Panhandle within the
next five years.
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