ELLETTSVILLE and BLOOMFIELD (Indiana) – Smithville, Indiana’s largest privately-held telecom, and the Utilities District of Western Indiana REMC (UDWI)  announced a unique limited partnership that is expected to accelerate high-speed fiber construction in a cost-effective manner. The partnership is expected to mutually benefit customers and communities in their overlapping service areas, according to Darby A. McCarty, Chairman and CEO of Smithville, and Doug Childs, UDWI CEO. 

The two companies will first leverage this new partnership to bring high-speed fiber-optic connectivity to more than 800 homes in the rural area east of Stanford in  Monroe County. The two-year project will begin its initial phase in early 2021 and focus on building residential fiber connectivity to about 280 homes. Additional areas of the project are expected to start construction later in 2021. The companies set a schedule that forecasts the completion of the full project of more than 800 homes by the end of  2022. 

“Smithville currently has fiber and legacy service customers in Greene and  Monroe Counties and other areas served by UDWI, so combining strategic resources in a limited partnership will bring benefits to present and future customers and communities served by both,” said Ms. McCarty. “Many of these areas have high  construction costs, so this partnership will help lower costs and accelerate fiber access  without impacting either of our customer bases.” 

According to Childs, “This approach represents a best-of-all-worlds solution for our members and organization, leveraging UDWI’s existing infrastructure and  Smithville’s telecommunications expertise to bring our members the connectivity that they want and need at the lowest possible cost. 

“This strategic partnership allows UDWI to continue our present focus on both capital improvements and increased vegetation management to improve service reliability for our members,” said Childs. “We look forward to getting this first project  underway.”

According to UDWI Board Director Sophie Haywood, the partnership offers great benefits to the members and has full board support. “Our board of directors is excited about the partnership and the opportunity to bring better connectivity to our members. It’s something they have asked for, which we could not have done economically on our own. Through this partnership, we are helping find new ways to address the needs of our members.” 

Smithville’s engineering teams are completing plans for the initial Monroe  County project area, which will include using some aerial infrastructure assets owned by  UDWI. Joint planning will continue throughout the two-year timeframe as new construction areas are added within the initial Monroe County project. 

The organizations are presently considering additional joint projects that utilize  UDWI’s electric infrastructure and Smithville’s telecommunications expertise to construct high-speed fiber infrastructure in places where their service areas overlap,  according to Cullen McCarty, executive vice president of Smithville. “This initial project will serve as the foundation for additional projects in the future,” he added. “The  Monroe County project is just the beginning.”

Smithville and UDWI already both provide service in areas near the $100 million  WestGate@Crane Technology Park and other portions of south-central Indiana, where additional joint projects may also materialize. However, the companies will complete their initial joint project before actively pursuing additional opportunities, McCarty explained. 

“Smithville is committed to doing what it takes to continue to advance high-speed fiber connectivity in Indiana, especially in rural areas,” said Darby McCarty. “We are an active member of UDWI REMC, so we hold a positive vested interest in supporting current UDWI capital improvement projects and other customer initiatives,” she added. 

According to Smithville President Paul Quick, the need for connectivity has never been more evident, and finding ways to work together is the best way to address that need. “This type of innovative cooperation is exciting because of the new opportunities it creates to speed up fiber development and bring high-speed service to hard-to-reach rural areas that truly need it,” said Quick. “The real winners here are the customers of  Smithville and UDWI.” 

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About Smithville  

Nationally recognized for more than a decade as a Top 100 Broadband Company,  privately owned Smithville is Indiana’s largest independent telecom company with more than 200 employees. As a fifth-generation, family-owned business, Smithville has been committed to delivering fast and reliable connectivity and legendary serviceto its customers for nearly a century. The company is well-known as an industry leader and community supporter for rural Indiana.  

Since the early 1990s, Smithville has constructed more than 2,800 miles of high-speed,  high-capacity fiber across more than 22 Indiana counties, representing private investments totaling upward of a quarter of a billion dollars, including the recent completion of a $4.5 million, 100-gigabit fiber ring. 

In addition to its residential services, Smithville provides commercial fiber-based  connectivity for businesses, university campuses, biotechnology companies, healthcare  providers, government offices, residential centers, communities, and other entities,  including the WestGate@Crane Technology Park and the Purdue Research Park. The  company currently serves about 23,000 businesses and residences in southern and  central Indiana. For more information, please visit www.smithville.com.

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About Utilities District of Western Indiana (UDWI) REMC 

Utilities District of Western Indiana REMC is a non-profit organization engaged  principally in the distribution and sale of electricity in Greene and parts of Clay,  Daviess, Lawrence, Martin, Monroe, Owen, Putnam, Knox, Sullivan, and Vigo counties  in Indiana. The mission for UDWI: To provide its members with electricity and  quality, efficient service, while maintaining a financially healthy and rate competitive position in the industry through teamwork, mutual respect, and an on-going commitment to our members. For more information, please visit www.udwiremc.com.

BLOOMFIELD, Ind. (Aug. 19, 2020) — The Utilities District of Western Indiana REMC remains committed to improving the infrastructure in its system and is on pace to complete more than 30 miles of new line construction in 2020.

The co-op has completed 17 miles of line through the first seven months of 2020, and has another 14 under construction, with 10 of those 14 miles well on the way toward completion. Construction has taken place throughout the UDWI service territory, with a focus on areas with the most-aged lines that often contribute to outages.

“This year we set a goal of 34 miles of new line,” said UDWI Director of Operations Shane Smith. “While the COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to slightly amend that goal, we are still on pace for a record-breaking year.”

The co-op has more than 2,000 miles of line with approximately 50 percent that must be repaired or replaced. Near and long-term construction plans are primarily focused on the 1,070 miles of copper lines that are over 60 years old in some areas of the UDWI service territory. Around 350 miles of aluminum wire have also been identified for future upgrades or replacement. 

Last year, UDWI completed a record year for line replacement and construction, replacing nearly 28 miles of the aging infrastructure –more than double the amount of line replacement completed during any previous year in recent history.

In addition, Hoosier Heritage Management (HHM) has cleared trees and brush from over 30 miles of right-of-way and sprayed overgrown vegetation on an additional 22 miles. During high winds and storms, falling vegetation directly accounted for 42 percent of UDWI’s outages in 2019, with another 19 percent of outages suspected to be caused by vegetation. The co-op is actively working through the areas with the most vegetation-caused outages first. The long-term goal is to bring the system up to the industry standard of a “seven-year trim cycle” that has not ever been in place at UDWI.

“During the past several decades, many needed upgrades and replacements weren’t always completed as quickly as they should have been,” said UDWI CEO Doug Childs. “UDWI is now faced with an aging system in need of many miles of line replacements and we must also increase our commitment to tree trimming and vegetation management. UDWI is addressing these challenges and for the past two years improving our system’s infrastructure has been a driving force for the UDWI board, management, and staff; safe and reliable power for our members is our top priority.” 

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Utilities District of Western Indiana REMC (UDWI REMC), located in Bloomfield, Ind., is an electric utility cooperative that serves nearly 16,000 members in Clay, Daviess, Greene, Knox, Lawrence, Martin, Monroe, Owen, Putnam, Sullivan and Vigo Counties and maintains over 2,000 miles of line.