Snohomish project is part of a $500 million investment to provide reliably fast internet and services to residents and businesses throughout Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana.
Kirkland, Wash. (September 25, 2020) – Ziply™ Fiber today announced that it had completed a critical phase of the fiber-optic network build-out taking place in Snohomish, WA. Gig-speed fiber internet will be available for the first time and an all-new, state-of-the-art network to area residents and businesses. Ziply Fiber's modern network is purpose-built for today's world, where families are at home together working, learning, streaming, video conferencing, gaming, and more at the same time. This next-generation technology upgrade will make fiber internet available to thousands of area homes, apartments, and businesses beginning tomorrow, Saturday, September 26.
Snohomish is among the first 13 Northwest cities that Ziply Fiber has invested in to help improve the city's internet connectivity to be on par with larger metropolitan areas throughout the nation, and will be the first such project to be completed. Snohomish residents and businesses will benefit from increased speeds, a massive capacity upgrade, and fiber's symmetry to deliver gig speed when uploading and downloading, a critical benefit in today's world that only fiber can provide.
The multi-million-dollar build-out in Snohomish began in June 2020 as part of Ziply Fiber's $500 million investment in network improvements across its four-state territory. While work will continue over the next several weeks in a staggered rollout across much of the city, Ziply Fiber will begin taking orders and installing service to its first set of residential and business customers this Saturday. The company has deployed more than 75 miles of new fiber-optic cables throughout the city and will continue to build out more territory from now through completion in November 2020.
"I'm extremely proud of the work that our team has done and continues to do to deploy a city's worth of fiber-optic cables and build out the central office that houses all the equipment needed to handle the large volume of internet traffic in Snohomish. we couldn't be more excited to get businesses and households connected to the highest quality service around," said Harold Zeitz, CEO of ziply fiber. "The city of Snohomish has been a wonderful partner in this process. their hard work means we'll be able to light up the city faster than anticipated and get the citizens and businesses in Snohomish the kind of reliable, blazingly-fast internet they want."
"Expanding the availability of fiber throughout our city has been a top priority, and it is more important than ever for our community to have reliable internet as thousands of families work and go to school from home," said Wendy Poischbeg, Economic Development and Communications Manager for the City of Snohomish. "The City of Snohomish is very excited about the progress Ziply Fiber has made in such a short time, and we believe our local businesses and families will see the benefit of the investment the company has made here."
As a local, Northwest company, Ziply Fiber is proud to invest in our communities. The company believes that everyone – not just those who live in big cities – should access fast and reliable internet. While it will take time to upgrade 250,000 square miles of land throughout Ziply Fiber's four-state footprint with new fiber-optic cables, local hubs, new offices, and immense amounts of new hardware to run the new network, the company is capitalized for and committed to hundreds of more projects in its service area. Businesses and residents can visit get.ziplyfiber.com/fiber-construction to see maps of cities where construction is taking place and sign up to be the first to hear when Ziply is available in specific neighborhoods.
"When we purchased the Northwest territory from Frontier Communications back in May, we took over a network that hadn't been an investment priority for quite some time," added Zeitz. "Now, in just five months, we've invested millions of dollars in creating a new, state-of-the-art network for today's modern needs. While other networks were built when only watching TV and making phone calls mattered, we've had men and women working throughout the city for the past few months deploying the network built for the future, and we couldn't be more excited to turn it on in Snohomish."
As the company continues its rollout of fiber-based services across the region over the next several months and years, its DSL customers also will begin seeing service improvements. Part of Ziply Fiber's investment will work that's well underway to improve its core and aggregation network, across which all internet traffic travels. While there's still more work to be done, by improving the quality, capacity, and reliability of those critical network components, customers of all types of services will benefit.
The next several weeks will be busy ones for the company, as additional fiber build projects will hit key stages where gig-speed fiber internet service can be turned on in Anacortes, Kennewick, Pullman, and Richland, Washington; Coos Bay, Coquille, La Grande, and North Bend, Oregon; Coeur d'Alene, Moscow and Kellogg, Idaho; and Libby, Montana.
Ziply Fiber also has begun a complete overhaul of how it engages with its customers. From eliminating contracts and data caps for new residential accounts to timely and friendly in-person installations to the ease of contacting a customer care team that prioritizes effective and timely issue resolution, the company is focused on delivering on its promise of providing a refreshingly great customer experience. While this work is ongoing, additional hires, robust training, regular coaching moments, and timely resolution to issues are key focus areas and continue to be a priority for the company.
Ziply Fiber's primary service offerings will be Fiber Internet and phone for residential customers, Business Fiber Internet, and Ziply Voice services for small businesses; and a variety of internet, networking, and voice solutions for enterprise customers. The company will continue to support DSL and TV customers. A full listing of products and services can be found at get.ziplyfiber.com.
Ziply Fiber is headquartered in Kirkland, Washington, and has major offices in Everett, Washington, Beaverton, Oregon, and Hayden, Idaho. Most of Ziply Fiber's executive team, which consists of former executives from AT&T, CenturyLink, and Wave Broadband, either grew up in the Northwest or have spent the better part of 30 years living here. That local ownership and market familiarity is an integral part of the company mindset and culture.
Media Contacts:
Dan Miller, Curator PR for Ziply Fiber
206-979-4055
[email protected]
Boone Helm, Curator PR for Ziply Fiber
425-614-5898
[email protected]