Village Seeks New Provider for Fiber

Separately, Nsight waits for conduit for 5G/4G downtown Wi-Fi network

Egg Harbor’s village board on April 10 began seeking proposals from internet service providers (ISPs) to deliver fiber to all premises – outside of the downtown core area.

In late March, rising cost estimates from Frontier caused the village to break off its agreement and make requests for new proposals. Separately, within the downtown core area, from Harbor School Road to Orchard Road, the village already has an ISP, and the fiber itself and service to businesses and households in that vicinity will cost the village a total of $5,000.

For deployment of a public Wi-Fi broadband network downtown by Nsight Communications/Cellcom, the village and Egg Harbor Business Association in 2020 agreed to contribute $5,000 each. The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin provided a $48,960 grant for the work, with additional matching funds in the amount of $5,000 from the Door County Board of Supervisors, and $17,640 from Cellcom

This project, much smaller than the fiber-to-all-premises effort, will complement existing 4G/5G networks in the state Highway 42 corridor downtown.

Costs of burying conduit for that fiber are separately part of the village’s multi-million-dollar utility-burial, sidewalk-improvement, storm-sewer-repair and parking enhancements along Hwy 42. 

“Deploying the public Wi-Fi network infrastructure will also enable the village to deploy Smart City applications and other over-the-top services within the coverage area,” said Mick O’Malley, Nsight Director of Sustainability, Government Relations and Special Projects, in a press release. “Applications include video functionality, people-counting, parking lot space management, and online ticketing.”

Village officials have discussed, but not implemented, having  digital parking-fee stations similar to those in other tourist areas, such as Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

Nsight will place small, black Wi-Fi boxes on eight of the new streetlight poles scheduled for installation in the downtown area, and will run one line down Dock Road to the marina.

Village Administrator Megan Sawyer said while conduit and fiber are being buried in the downtown area, ISPs that make proposals to the village are free to utilize existing utility poles or to bury fiber to deliver service to the rest of the community. She said the companies have varying equipment and varying degrees of access to utility poles.

Sawyer said the villagewide broadband project should include the pursuit of grants.