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Teton County gets fiber optic cables

Silver Star Communications has used federal stimulus money to add 120 miles of new fiber optic cable, which is benefiting businesses in Teton County.

Two federal grants paid 80 percent of the 15 million dollars it cost to run the cable over Teton and Togwotee Passes. But most consumers will have to pay to install the final leg to their homes or businesses. That could be expensive. But Silver Star’s Kim Billimoria says there is a potentially more affordable option on the horizon.

"We're in the process of working with some private developers, who are interested in developing commercial space that is fiber-ready. So for people, who are saying, 'How can I connect to the fiber?' One option soon is going to be, well there are office buildings there are commercial developments that are fiber ready. You move in and you have it and you get the capacity you need,” Billimoria said.

Silver Star is also encouraging tenants in existing buildings and subdivisions to consider joining forces to pool the cost of extending the fiber optic cable to their homes and businesses.

A multi-media journalist, Rebecca Huntington is a regular contributor to Wyoming Public Radio. She has reported on a variety of topics ranging from the National Parks, wildlife, environment, health care, education and business. She recently co-wrote the one-hour, high-definition documentary, The Stagecoach Bar: An American Crossroads, which premiered in 2012. She also works at another hub for community interactions, the Teton County Library where she is a Communications and Digital Media Specialist. She reported for daily and weekly newspapers in Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and Wyoming for more than a decade before becoming a multi-media journalist. She completed a Ted Scripps Fellowship in Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado in 2002. She has written and produced video news stories for the PBS series This American Land (thisamericanland.org) and for Assignment Earth, broadcast on Yahoo! News and NBC affiliates. In 2009, she traveled to Guatemala to produce a series of videos on sustainable agriculture, tourism and forestry and to Peru to report on the impacts of extractive industries on local communities.
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