Porterville is getting gigabit fiber internet

OACYS Technology outlines plan to deliver area’s fastest internet speeds

For nearly two years, OACYS Technology has been working on a plan to bring gigabit Internet speeds to Porterville. OACYS is excited to announce that fiber optic is currently being deployed in certain parts of the city already, and longterm plans to deliver Fiber to the Home (FTTH) and businesses are in motion.

OACYS, a local Internet provider that has been providing Internet to Porterville and the surrounding areas since the age of dialup, will be the first internet service provider to provide 1 Gigabit (1,000Mbps) speeds to Porterville residents and businesses.

Those who will not be in the Fiber Service Area will continue to have access to their fiber backed wireless Internet service. Currently with one subdivision fully served, construction has started in other areas with more currently being planned.

“Construction crews are almost complete with the first phase of the fiber ring that will be used to feed businesses and homes towards the west side of Porterville, with over two miles of new fiber pathway in the ground,” said President and CEO Ryan Walker. “Work on the second phase to feed to the east of Highway 65 has just started and should be complete in less than two months. We are very excited to get Gigabit connectivity up to the businesses and residents near these first fiber paths. Those near these paths, as shown in the Service Zones at oacysfiber.com, could get service soon if they voice their interest in the online survey.”

According to the broadband access advocacy group Broadband Now, the average download speed in the Porterville area is 24.19 Mbps. This is 17.1 percent slower than the average speeds in California and nearly 30 percent slower than the national average. Currently, certain areas of Porterville have access to download speeds up to 100Mbps and in some instances 400Mbps.

However, the copper lines used by cable and telephone companies that deliver those speeds often do not have the capacity to constantly deliver that throughput to shared access between homes and business. With OACYS delivering Internet service through fiber optic cable, the increased capacity not only provides a higher, more consistent download and upload speed, it provides expandability for the future.

With affordable pricing, Porterville residents and businesses will have access to speeds that are needed to properly handle bandwidth hungry services, such as 4k and 8k streaming, virtual reality and increasingly demanding smart home applications. Unlike services provided via copper lines from cable and phone companies, fiber is the best medium for delivering the highest capacity connections, at 1 Gigabit, 10 Gigabit and higher, for decades to come.

Over the next several years, OACYS plans to build fiber throughout Porterville and begin deployment in neighboring communities. As construction takes place, fiber deployment will be built where demand and need are the greatest. For those interested in FTTH, visit www.oacysfiber.com, to sign up.

Service zones will be listed and based off the public interest, and each zone will be competing for construction priority. If your address is not currently in an active service zone, surveys will help dictate where OACYS will deploy fiber first as they continue to build throughout Porterville. Without taking an online survey, it will be likely that fiber will not be deployed in your neighborhood in a timely manner.

One service zone has already moved through the survey, signup and construction phase, with FTTH available to over 70 homes in that neighborhood. Take rate for that location is nearly 100%, a clear sign that the desire for faster, more reliable Internet in Porterville is in high demand.

“We are well aware that demand for gigabit speeds is going to be high throughout the city,” says Walker. “But in order to make sure we build to where demand is the highest, we are encouraging those who are interested in service to use our service zone platform. We want to make sure we are building to the interest, not just a location. Our intent is to provide city-wide coverage, but it will not be completed overnight, as we are expecting this to be a three year project. During that time, residents and businesses will impact our construction plans based off the inquiries we receive on our service zones website.”

To stay up to date on the progress of the fiber deployment project, follow OACYS Technology on Facebook and Instagram. New service zones will be made public as their fiber ring continues to grow through Porterville.