Gold Mountain Residents Overcome Internet Speed Bumps

December 21, 2017, Portola, CA ā€“ When it comes to the Internet, every millisecond counts. Ask anyone in Gold Mountainā€”an upscale golf resort development between Portola and Clio, California, boasting 400-plus custom home sites.

The views, championship golf course, new fitness center, four-star hotel facility with state-of-the-art broadband service to all rooms, and Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired club house are second to none. But access to high-speed Internet has evaded property owners in the development until now.

Gold Mountain residents have relied on satellite or terrestrial transmissions from out-of-the-area service providers, or a Wi-Fi signal from mobile-phone service providers. Each of these technologies has its limitations and restrictions, and makes running a home-based business or telecommuting a nightmare. With more and more data-hungry smartphones and tablets creating mounting digital traffic jams, residents on the mountain needed a solution.

Barring challenges with the weather, Plumas-Sierra Telecommunications project managers hope to solve this problem by early spring, 2018.

Gold Mountain HOA began talking with PST, based in Portola, regarding bringing high-speed Internet to the development in 2015. ā€œBob Marshall [PST General Manager] was very helpful with financing and pricing information, and was eager to help,ā€ says Jim Lafferty, president of the association.

The good news for Gold Mountain residents is that developers laid the foundation for future services when they initially planned the gated, environmentally conscious community in 2002 by installing underground conduit throughout the project. The challenge was whether that conduit, which was initially installed for cable TV, could be cleaned out and made a vehicle to carry fiber optic cable.

Prior to commencing work on the broadband project, property owners had to first appoint a project manager from the HOA, research project requirements, locate existing conduit and raise fundsā€”which required a special assessment requiring a vote of the members.