iFiber brings services to Royal City

ROYAL CITY — There are early indications that iFiber Communications’s expansion of Internet, high-definition television and phone services to this community will go well.

iFiber personnel were here last week checking out the boundaries of the fiber optics network installed by the Grant County Public Utility District. Residents who noticed the service truck stopped to ask how soon service would be available, and hookups were ordered on the spot.

“I got a call from the director of field operations. He was stopped by a resident while  he was driving out of town,” said iFiber Chief Operating Officer Kelly Ryan. “He felt we needed to get down there right away.”

Royal City is the latest of several Grant County communities to join the service area of iFiber. iFiber already serves Ephrata, Moses Lake, Quincy, Electric City, Coulee City, Grand Coulee, Mattawa, Desert Aire, Warden and the Wilson Creek area. iFiber service reaches to near Soap Lake and will be in Soap Lake around May 1.

iFiber will market to Royal City from its Mobile Demo Center, a trailer that carries HD televisions, computers and phones. Prospective customers will be able to sample how those services will act in their homes after being hooked up to fiber optic lines.

“Fiber is simply the fastest way to deliver broadband,” Ryan said.

iFiber delivers Internet service at an average speed of 88 megabytes throughout Grant County. On speedtest.net it was ranked the No. 1 Internet Service Provider, by speed, in the U.S. in late December.

According to Ryan, 400 homes in Royal City have access to the PUD’s fiber. That’s 400 potential customers.

Ryan noted the Mobile Demo Center operates four days a week. It will be open from 3 to 7 p.m., or later, Wednesday through Friday and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays.