Fiber to the Home (FTTH) project “outside” construction activities will resume the week of May 18. FTTH installations and construction were halted March 19 due to COVID-19 impacts. MPW and AEG are ramping up staffing after the 8-week delay, and completion of construction activities is now slated for the end of this year’s construction season.
“The MPW and AEG teams were very busy over the winter verifying field conditions and planning remaining work”, said Erika Cox, Director of Technology and Customer Experience. “Although COVID-19 threw a wrench into our plans, we feel we are in a very good position to get things started again.”
A joint goal of MPW and AEG has been to streamline remaining construction work, focus on smaller pockets of neighborhoods to work on at any time, and start and finish work in those smaller areas in a much shorter timeframe causing less disruptions to customer and fewer locating requirements, “In other words, get in and get out,” Cox said.
Because of its limited interaction with customers and other workers, outside construction can be completed within CDC guidelines, unlike the more complete customer in-home installations.
“We’re anxious, like many of our customers, to resume in-home installations,” Cox said, “but since they can require up to several hours inside the home, a date for resuming customer installations has not been determined.”
With 64% of customers on the fiber system now, MPW hopes remaining installations (including Fruitland) will be completed in first quarter 2021. MPW is currently doing very limited in-home work, with appointments limited to providing essential services.
