The Starke County Commissioners this week approved the installation of fiber optic cable for high speed internet at all of the county buildings.
IT Director Brian Pinson says there was a dramatic difference in both response time and services offered from the two vendors he spoke to about the installation.
“Mediacom got back to me within probably two weeks. I just heard back from CenturyLink last week. Mediacom will do all the work all the way up into our server rooms. CenturyLink will only go out to the road, then we have to hire a third party to come in and do the conduit and everything to go into the building.”
Pinson adds Mediacom’s quote includes an installation charge of $10,000. The monthly cost for services is just over $1,000 for internet for the whole county, including the buildings in downtown Knox and at the sheriff’s office. That’s $400 more than the county is currently paying.
Pinson says CenturyLink would not charge for installation, but the county will still have to hire a third party to run conduit from the road into their server rooms. Their monthly charge is $2,100. Both quotes are for the same internet speed of 100 Mbps.
He adds Mediacom’s price is part of a five-year contract for a private fiber optic line, which the company monitors for service interruptions.
The commissioners determined Mediacom’s price is the best over the long term and approved the expenditure. The $10,000 installation cost will come from the county’s cumulative capital development fund, and the monthly Mediacom bill will be paid from the IT budget.
