Lincoln City Council:
Aldermen learn of i3 Broadband fiber optic services in the city

 

[May 26, 2022] 

Tuesday evening Josh Bradbury and Kristi Wall of i3 Broadband shared with the Lincoln aldermen the work that is ongoing in Lincoln and the arrival of a new internet, television and telephone provider that will be open for business in the near future.

The company will be in direct competition with Comcast in Lincoln, offering the same services. Bradbury and Wall walked through what has already been accomplished by the company and what is yet to be done. They explained their company history and talked about the work they have already completed in other cities.

The company did not seek anything from the city financially, saying they have their own investors and financial means to complete the work. They also did not ask the city to consider any kind of franchise agreement with the new provider.

Bradbury said that the company has a 20-year-history in business and that they started in Pekin and their head office and main customer service call center is located in Peoria with about 50 employees on hand to answer calls from customers on a daily basis.

It was also shared that when the company is ready to go online with their service, there will be local people hired to work on home installation and service calls in Lincoln. The first person from the Lincoln Community has already been hired, with more to come.

Bradbury shared that the company has a capital investor out of London, England, who has challenged the team to grow the company as quickly as it can, thus i3 committed to providing services in more than 12 cities in 2021, and are still expanding including Galesburg and Lincoln in 2022.

Bradbury said that the company is community oriented and wants to be involved in community activities in the future.

The company will provide “fiber to home” services to any resident desiring it. Bradbury said there is no long-term contract for i3, unlike some of the accounts held by Comcast.

Later in the discussion Alderwoman Kathy Horn asked about how the new company would assist with switching customers to i3 from Comcast. Wall said if customers do want to switch from Comcast to i3, the new provider does offer a buy-out of Comcast contracts of sorts, in that they will reimburse the customer up to $300 for their Comcast contract.

Wall said she would be one of the people who the company wants to be “the face of i3 in Lincoln.”

She said that the company is busy already installing underground line.

Bradbury and Wall had brought with them a handout for aldermen to review.

The company has already done some installation of underground fiber optics in Lincoln and work is ongoing to do the entire city.
 

Wall said that the first step before moving into a specific neighborhood would be the notify residents via mail that the company would be doing work in their yards. She explained the mailers, a post card style plus letters that will be mailed during specific stages, including the final letter offering residents the opportunity to switch to i3.





She pointed out the pages that illustrated the machine that will come to the neighborhood and what it will do. She said that the borer machine will drill a hole underground where that the line will later be put in. Then the company will do a restoration of the landscape that will make it as close to the original condition as possible.

For customers who wish to have i3 service they will have to have a new connection box installed on the outside of their home and a new connection installed inside the home.

Bradbury said that the goal of the company was to leave the community as it was, and to make sure that homeowners are not unhappy with the work they have done.

The two representatives also pointed out a map provided in the handout. They said that the red areas are where work is already completed or underway and the blue areas are the future targets. The company expects to have the entire city done before the end of the year.

Alderwoman Wanda Lee Rohlfs was attending the meeting via remote connection. She spoke about calls she had received from constituents who saw the workers but did not know who they were or what they were doing.

Rohlfs said that the people had told her that they were not unhappy about what the workers were doing because they seemed to work fast, efficiently, and with little disturbance to the community.

Rohlfs said she had been impressed with the workers, but wished that Bradbury and Wall had come to the city before they started their work, not after. She said she likes transparency and felt that the company could have done a little better at that.

Bradbury said he agreed, i3 should have come sooner, but circumstances had not permitted it. He apologized to the city council and to the community, but added that he was very happy to hear that the community was not displeased with the workers.
 

He added that mailers had gone out to residents in the neighborhoods where work was taking place, but he realized those types of mail often got tossed in the trash.

Bradbury and Wall said the initial service will come in at “One G (gigabyte) up and down,” This means the transfer of information, whether it be an upload from the home computer or a download to the computer will occur at one Gigabyte per second. However, the company will be launching 10 G speed in 2022. It was also shared that i3 is one of only 26 services nationally that offers up and down speeds that fast.

Referring to the other pages in the handout, it was pointed out that the company is ranked in the top five in the nation for customer service, it is community involved, and will help with economic development through fast reliable services that companies and businesses need in today’s technology based world.



Bradbury added that Comcast won’t be going away, it will still be in Lincoln but that with i3 coming in as well, customers now have another viable option. Plus, he said “competition is good.” He said that with two companies vying for the same services, it will drive the prices down and that will be good for the consumers.



A page was also offered defining the i3 products and services and in some cases the price of said products and services.
 

Anyone with questions about the company, the work being done, or opening an account may contact one of three company representatives. Contact information is provided in the above illustration.

[Nila Smith]