Headline: TDS to begin second phase of modernization
Date: 3/20/2007 12:00:00 AM
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Media Outlet: Monroe Times
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news.vocus.com/click/here.pl?z85···50239508By Shannon Green
sgreen@themonroetimes.com
MONROE -- TDS Telecom will begin the second phase of updating Monroe's telephone and Internet
service to over 450 homes this spring.
Project Engineer Kurt Adler of Kapitan Engineering, representing TDS, outlined a plan to the Monroe
Board of Public Works Monday night.
Adler said that the pedestal units will be placed, if possible, next to an 'existing feature' -- such as
shrubbery or a telephone pole.
Alderman Mark Coplien stated he received complaints last year when the pedestal boxes were placed out
in the open in front of a property. 'Just to have one sticking out in the middle of nowhere -- it doesn't work,'
Coplien said. 'It's not always practical (to put them next to an existing planting),' Adler said. Adler noted
that the aerial lines will be removed and replaced underground, but that the aerial power cables and poles
will remain.
This year's installation is the second part of a multi-year plan to install the lines throughout Monroe. The
area in which the fiber optics will be installed includes the east side of Monroe centering around the
Green County Fairgrounds, bounded by Fifth Street on the north, 23rd Avenue on the west, 18th Street
on the south and 31st Avenue on the east.
Last summer, TDS replaced old copper phone lines along the Ninth Street corridor and the surrounding
neighborhood with a new fiber optic network designed to provide high-speed data transmission to meet
Monroe's long-term technology needs.
The system is being installed underground following the same route as the old equipment. It runs through
a new conduit system more capable of handling the impact of road construction than the system the
copper wires run through.
TDS is incurring all expenses for the installation and any new equipment.
All TDS customers in Monroe will eventually have to convert to the new fiber optic system because it will
be the only system TDS uses in the future. TDS will pay for the switch. In return, customers can expect
higher speed Internet service without any change in the cost of TDS phone service.
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