Nearly 62,000 rural Allen County properties now have access to high-speed broadband internet.
The Allen County commissioners have partnered with Angola-based Lakeland Internet LLC, an internet service provider founded in 2019. The project has expanded internet access eligibility to eastern Allen County, officials said Tuesday.
County and Lakeland officials gathered near the Hoagland Cell Tower, 11532 Wayne Trace, to announce the expanded services. The commissioners have long worked toward finding broadband for rural areas that don’t have reliable internet access.
Lakeland Internet has leased six radio towers, including the Hoagland tower, and installed wireless internet equipment on them to send out a signal that covers most of those areas, focusing on communities outside the Interstate 469 belt.
The company will offer internet download speeds of up to 500 megabits per second, the release said. Most internet speeds in those areas currently get up to 15 megabits per second, Lakeland officials said. Areas are considered underserved if downloads with the fastest internet access are slower than 100 megabits per second, according to the Indiana Broadband Office.
The initial project rollout provides the strongest connectivity to areas including Roanoke, Yoder, Zanesville, Monroeville, Leo-Cedarville and Woodburn, along with Ossian in Wells County.
Some service will reach into Huntington and Wells counties. Joshua Garman, Lakeland Internet’s operations manager, said the project focuses on Allen County, considering the company received $1.2 million from the commissioners.
“With this project, we’ve already received a lot of contact from customers in this area,” Garman said. “If we do receive contact from customers outside of Allen County, we say that our primary focus with this project is to work (in Allen County). If we get everybody installed in Allen County who wants Lakeland service, and there’s still room left over, we’ll look at the counties outside of that.”
The commissioners initially approved the project in December. Commissioner Nelson Peters said then that the project worth nearly $10 million would be completed for a little more than $1.2 million county investment because Lakeland was fronting more than $7 million.
The commissioners shared in a statement Tuesday that $1.2 million of American Rescue Plan Act funds were used for the project.
“By leveraging the private-public partnership with Lakeland Internet, we can impact the lives of tens of thousands of rural residents,” Commissioner Therese Brown said. “For those who have had access to unreliable, (slow internet service), this has the potential to be life-changing for all of you and for local businesses as well.”
East Allen County Schools will also benefit from the newly installed internet service said Tamyra Kelly, the district’s public information officer.
“It eases our minds a bit when we have e-learning days that all of our students are getting access. Our teachers, our educators in the classroom are getting that strong internet access,” Kelly said. “So, we’re super excited.”
Lakeland Founder Chuck Surack said getting reliable internet to the area could drive growth.
“People always want to move where there are utilities,” he said. “Having internet is really another utility today. So, absolutely, it will help grow this part of the county.”
Lakeland said people who registered through a pre-sign process will receive priority installation.
Those who have not requested access yet are encouraged to do so quickly so that they might receive installation as soon as possible, the service provider said.
Lakeland said it will cover the cost of home installations and equipment for some addresses, the news release said. More information is online at www.lakelandinternet.com/allencounty/.
Also announced Tuesday, Lakeland Internet will open its first Fort Wayne field office next month. The release said the move is intended to support local hiring, improve dispatch efficiency and strengthen community engagement.
The office will be located at 400 W. Main St. and will provide an in-person option for customers inquiring about service, bills or equipment.
The commissioners said they will continue to talk with Lakeland about a potential phase two to the project, which would require constructing additional infrastructure to service the underserved communities in western and northwestern Allen County.