Leaco says fiberoptic internet coming soon
By John Earp
At the meeting of the Jal City Council this past Monday evening, representatives from Leaco, an internet service provider based in Hobbs, were granted time to share information about their plans for installing high-speed fiberoptic internet throughout Jal. Their plan is to begin in stages installing fiberoptic internet service in the southern and southwest portions of Jal, then moving to the central and northern portions, and finally to the portion of Jal east of Highway 18, with June 30th being the goal for having the first 5-1/2 miles of fiberoptic cable installed in Jal, with the hope being to beat that timeframe.
Mayor Stephen Aldridge mentioned that the City has been working with Leaco “for quite a while…five years ago or longer.” The representatives began by saying, “It’s been a real long road,” working on getting Leaco fiberoptic to Jal. Leaco is currently waiting on Xcel to install new utility poles, which will take time. The first phase of service installation in southern Jal is projected to begin in June. Upload and download speeds on the fiberoptic network will be symmetrical.
Interesting features of the Leaco fiberoptic internet service which were mentioned by the Leaco representatives involve real-time parental controls over access by all electronic devices using the Leaco WiFi. Leaco also says they will be able to remotely see if any problems are due to older televisions or devices instead of the network itself.
The cost per month for residential customers was quoted by the Leaco sales representative as beginning at $50 per month for the basic service, with no surprise fees or increases in cost later on, with optional landline residential phone service through Leaco, including porting your old phone number over to Leaco, being $22.07 per month, before taxes. Speeds up to 2.5 gig will be available at higher rates. Councilor Fred Seifts asked if the speed would be negatively impacted if numerous people are using the service at the same time. The Leaco representative said the way fiberoptic internet works, it will not be significantly impacted by having numerous customers online at the same time. He added that some computers or devices might have a limitation built into them which may limit speed, but the service itself will not be impacted by numerous users online at once.
