A Texas company that is building a fiber-optic network in Colorado Springs to offer discounted internet access with speeds up 100 gigabits per second plans to build a similar network in Fountain.
Underline Infrastructure expects to complete a 22-mile “backbone” from which it will connect individual neighborhoods and customers in nine to 12 months and complete those connections in another year, said Bob Thompson, the Austin, Texas-based company’s founder and CEO. The Fountain network will be separate from but connected to Underline’s Colorado Springs network to provide “redundancy,” he said.
Unlike the Colorado Springs network, Underline’s Fountain network also will be used by Fountain’s utilities department for its internal needs, including monitoring its power grid, Thompson said. The project will cost up to $35 million to complete, financed privately through institutional investors. Thompson said the company also is talking to other cities and communities in El Paso County, which he declined to identify, about building networks there.
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“Fountain is a great example of city leaders and private enterprise working together to solve problems. The city has been a great partner,” Thompson said. “We will be building an open-access network throughout the city and a secure network to serve Fountain Utilities. We believe that fast, affordable and fair internet access is table stakes (a starting point) for any community.”
Colorado Springs Utilities announced plans earlier this month to expand its existing 250-mile fiber network during the next six years to more than 2,000 miles to cover the entire city. That network will be for both internal use and to lease to Ting, an affiliate of satellite giant Dish Network that will sell internet access to residential and business customers, competing directly with Underline’s fiber network.
The Fountain network resulted from a request for proposals Fountain officials made two years ago for a broadband network for the city-owned utilities operation as well as residential, business and government customers. Underline signed a contract with Fountain in November to become an anchor customer on the network the company is planning in the Colorado Springs suburb.
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“This deployment of improved broadband across our community will be the culmination of several years of work by the city and will complete a major strategic objective set by the council in 2019,” Fountain Mayor Sharon Thompson, who is not related to the Underline executive, said in Underline’s news release.
Underline’s pricing for its Fountain network will be same as its Colorado Springs network, starting at $49 a month for 500 megabit-a-second service (both upload and download) with speed of up 10 gigabits per second available for $295 a month. The company will offer “micro-business” service for $79 a month for 500 megabit-per-second service with speeds up to 100 gigabits per second available at prices based on the level of service needed.
Underline will own and operate both the Colorado Springs and Fountain networks, but internet access will be provided by one of several companies to ensure competition, Thompson said.
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Permits for construction of the first phase of the Colorado Springs network have been issued and boring underground conduit for the fiber-optic lines is halfway complete, putting construction ahead of schedule, Thompson said. Underline hopes to begin signing up and serving residential customers in Colorado Springs next month, he said. The 225-mile first phase of the Colorado Springs network will be roughly between Interstate 25, Academy Boulevard, Constitution Avenue and Fountain Boulevard.
The company has asked potential customers to indicate interest in the service by signing up for updates and is using that information to determine where the next phases will be built, Thompson said.Â
Underline was started two years ago by Thompson, who spent most of his career in the financial services industry, with investments from Fantail Ventures and FinTech Collective, both based in New York. The company picked Colorado Springs two years ago as the site of its first network because of its demographics, business climate and growth prospects. Underline eventually plans to build networks in up to 2,500 small to mid-sized cities nationwide.
