A fiber-optic infrastructure will soon be making its way to Plymouth, thanks to a tentative commitment by the Marshall County commissioners with St. Joseph Valley Metronet.
Metronet is a company currently providing fiber connectivity to South Bend and Mishawaka, and if everything goes according to plan, they will soon be providing high-speed bandwidth to companies in Marshall County at competitive prices. The company will lay a fiber-optic network infrastructure in the area at an estimated total cost of $2.2 million, and that hefty price tag covers the creation of the infrastructure but the actual fiber will be paid for and owned by Metronet.
Brent Martin of the Technology Squared Committee told the commissioners that the cost of the project would be split between the city of Plymouth and the county. The county would cover the cost of fiber running from St. Joseph County to Plymouth, and the city would fund the cost of fiber going around the city. Martin said that in order to get started, the city and county would each need to cover half of the cost of an engineering consultant – roughly $60,000.
A motion was made and passed two-to-one to recommend the county council pay the county’s half of the cost to begin the project.
