Ever since Silver Star was awarded CARES Act funding through Wyoming Business Council, the company has been in a race against time to build out fiber in the area defined as the southern Star Valley CARES Fiberhood. The project timeline requires completion in December but as anyone who lives here knows, winter weather can make construction tricky well before then. As the weather shifts and the window for completion narrows, it will be very difficult to accommodate last-minute signups.

Silver Star has restructured itself internally to devote as many resources as possible to this project and getting it done in a timely manner. Teams of contractors have been brought in from as far away as Texas to help Silver Star dig trenches, bore under asphalt, bury conduit and splice fiber.

Silver Star must receive written permission to access someone’s property to bring fiber to the premises. “Through our marketing and outreach efforts we have worked to ensure that every person who could take advantage of the opportunity for free fiber construction has had the chance,” said Eric Gewiss, Director of PR and Marketing. “Once the deadline of October 16 passes, new sign-ups will be added to a wait list that our crews will serve as time and resources allows. However, the reality for those signing up past the deadline is that there may be locations we simply cannot serve this year. It would then become the responsibility of the owner to pay for the cost of extending the fiber on their property in the future.”

Once the new fiber infrastructure is complete, Silver Star’s existing DSL or Fixed Wireless services will be turned down and the infrastructure decommissioned. Silver Star wants to service customers with the best technology available and it does not make sense to keep devoting resources to multiple methods of delivering internet and phone services once the superior fiber-optic network is place.

If you are in the CARES Fiberhood area, or know someone who is, please call Silver Star or sign up at silverstar.com/fiberhood today.