Keeping you connected

Dear Wilton Community,

You may have noticed our crews are out and about placing fiber cables throughout town and hanging Network Interface Devices (NIDS) on homes. The Fiber to the Home (FTTH) project began on April 20, 2021. We are excited to have started the process and to have you be part of the largest construction endeavor in the 120 year history of WTC Communications.  

The Purpose: The fiber project is to retire the older phone and CATV plants. The fiber plant will also give us better ability to deliver voice, CATV and internet over one plant. The fiber will also deliver higher internet speeds. We are also moving our central office location from 410 Cedar St. to a prefabricated building behind our current location at 810 West 5th St. Total completion time for the new plant estimated to take 2 years.

The Process: Currently our staff is mounting the Network Interface Devices (NIDS) on the residential homes. Our contractor will be placing the mainline and drops to the houses. Once the drops are in place, our staff will begin the fiber splicing outside the house and running fiber wire from the NID to an Optical Network Termination (ONT) located in the basement or a desired place in houses that do not have basements. The ONT does require a power source and there will be an optional battery backup available for purchase. Once the ONT is in place, we will run a Category 6 cable from the ONT to the modem/router. WTC will supply the routers on the fiber system. Everything from there will be wireless, except for voice services. We will have mesh extenders that will plug into an outlet for larger houses to ensure sufficient coverage.

The Services: We will continue to deliver voice, internet, and video. The voice will operate as it does today. The internet offering will be higher download/upload speeds at prices comparable to the current DSL pricing. We are in a unique position to convert our CATV offering from linear to an app. based streaming service like Netflix or Hulu.

The Construction: Our contractor is Swick Cable Contractors, Inc. They are very conscientious of the quality of work they do. The main legs will be directional bored with innerduct then the fiber product pulled in. We will have a series of ground level vaults that vary in size depending on what is going through it. The new plant will be located in the front public Right-Of-Way instead of the alleys. The fiber drops will be installed by using yard plows that will pull ¾ inch duct from the serving vault to the NID on the house and then a 4-fiber flat drop will be pulled in. The expected disturbance to your property should be minimal. Swick uses vacuums to remove the dirt where the vaults will be placed. The yard plows will create a slit in the ground that will be packed back down with the machine. Depending on the weather conditions, there may be a period of time you can see the slit, but it will fade as time passes. The rural areas included in this year’s construction will have the mainline plowed in duct with fiber pulled in and we will direct bury the 4-fiber drop.

Post cutover: We will be removing vacated pedestals (the green or galvanized boxes) from the alleys and yards.

More information will follow as it becomes available. We are looking forward to serving you for the next 120 years!!

Thank you for choosing WTC Communications.

Sincerely,

Mark W. Peterson

President/CEO

WTC Communications