FMTC announces fiber internet coming to Red Oak community

unities of Red Oak, Clarinda, Bedford, and Corning will be getting FMTC of Stanton’s Fiber Internet according to Kevin Cabbage, FMTC’s CEO.
Phase one construction will start in May, 2024 in two zones: one in Red Oak and one in Clarinda, each covering approximately half of each community’s population.
FMTC official say their 2024 construction plans were based on the ability to get the most customers connected as quickly as possible, due to the existing fiber and other facilities they already have in Red Oak and Clarinda.
The company expects to start customer installations in the phase one areas in summer and continue into late fall. Phases two and three will continue in 2025 and 2026 with all areas slated to be completed by the end of 2026; specific zones that will be built in phases two and three will be announced in late 2024.
Doug Pals, FMTC Chief Experience Officer, invited customers in all four communities to go to myfmtc.com/city-fiber to learn more about the ‘City Fiber’ project, see pricing and sign-up for service.
“The first action customers can take right now is to go to our website for details about the City Fiber project and get signed up. There are menus and links on our home page to take you to project details and the sign-up page; we invite all residents in the four communities to go there to get started,” said Pals. “We want to serve everyone, and the first step toward that is to see who wants our service. As we continue the three phase project, we want to get to the most people we possibly can.”
Pals said he’s excited to share the news of the new fiber options in Red Oak and the surrounding area.
“We’re bringing fiber to Red Oak. That’s exciting news. This has been a long process, and there’s a lot of history to it. I know Red Oak is considered served, and you have other options here, but fiber is something the city has sought after, something that is needed in this day and age, and we’re glad to be the ones to bring it to Red Oak,” commented Pals. “What programs consider served, and what the public feels like is being served are two entirely different things.
Pals did warn residents to be wary of potential contracts being offered.
“I would be remiss if I didn’t urge residents to be cautious about signing contracts with other existing providers. That’s a tactic that can be used to hinder you from getting the fiber internet if you want,” advised Pals.
Building landlords are also encouraged to check with tenants if they’re interested in fiber internet.
“You can get online and say you want it to your structure, and you can work with your tenants to see if they’re ready to take the service to. At the bottom of the sign up sheet on the site, it asks if you are the property owner, and if you’re not, you can tell us who the property owner or landowner is and we will try to contact them and finalize things,” advised Pals.
Pals said there were a number of factors that led to FMTC pushing forward with city wide fiber.
“This isn’t a shock, this is something we always wanted to do, we just never had a good mechanism to do it with. We made the decision to move forward because we value the communities, we’ve invested in them already. We wanted to be here before, we just anticipated some of these federal programs would assist in our ability to build. That was one of the things we were waiting on,” stated Pals.
The fiber internet speed options, Pals said, will be quite expansive.
“We’re selling everything from 250 meg to a gigabyte. The network we’re going to be putting in can go up to 10 gigs. I don’t have the pricing for 10 gig internet yet, but if someone wants 10 gigs, we can get them that. This network will clearly be future-forward and ready,” explained Pals.
Pals also said that they will be able to have the amount of workers needed to meet all the target deadlines.
“We’re using a contractor that has plenty of abilities to do this. Our people will oversee that. Our staff, if we had to do this, we couldn’t do it quickly enough. Anyone that is doing a build of this size would need to use a contractor to do the work. I will say that we’ve all been involved in construction projects of various types, so I ask for grace at the beginning. I like my grass as much as everyone else, but I also realize a project like this can mess things up, Pals said. “We are in a drought, and it’s hard to keep things going. My wife loves a good landscape design, but when stuff gets messed up it gets disheartening.”
Phase one of the project will be completed by the end of 2024, and service will be available in the fall or winter. TV will not be an option as of yet, as Pals said TV was simply too difficult a market to get into. The TV currently being offered will only be for its existing exchanges.
Pals said he doesn’t see any factors or issues derailing things, and FMTC is pleased to invest.
“This is a big investment in the community, but it’s also a big improvement for the community of Red Oak, the other cities we’re building in, and Southwest Iowa in general. The region has value in it. We’re hoping that Montgomery County will be the first one that’s completely fiber in the state of Iowa. I don’t know where other counties are at this point, but it might be close,” Pals said.
Cabbage said having a sign-up of all interested parties is a key step in their building process, due to the intent to build in all four communities.
“We want to see who is interested in our services and where they are located. Understanding that helps us refine construction plans for phases in 2025 and 2026. As has been stated, we will announce phase two build plans in late ’24.” Cabbage continued, “It has been in our company vision to bring fiber to residental customers in these communities because we have invested significantly in fiber to serve the businesses in these communities, and we serve customers in much of the adjacent rural areas. Since building a fiber network is so expensive, we expected to use state or federal grants or low-cost loan programs to assist with the construction.”
Cabbage added since those funding options are not available for use in these communities, the board decided to use more traditional funding methods to make this significant investment to serve the customers in these communities.
Products and pricing can be found on the City Fiber page of the website, myfmtc.com.