The City of Bloomington is behind on its project to expand internet access to residents, as construction has been paused for about a year as the city looks to secure a new primary construction partner.   

The city is partnering with Meridiam and GigabitNow to spend over $50 million on high-speed, affordable and accessible internet for those in single-family housing, duplexes and businesses. About half the city has access to GigabitNow internet. 

As an infrastructure developer, Meridiam is building a network that other internet service providers can eventually lease. But for the first five years, GigabitNow will be the only provider that can use Meridiam’s fiber.  

“We have a very scattered or hit and miss broadband market,” said Rick Dietz, director of the information and technology services department of the city. “There are areas where there's limited competition, there's no fiber. There are provider options, but we wanted to ensure for the future of Bloomington that fiber-based internet access is available to everyone, and it's available in a competitive way. And that gets to the heart of the open access model, where you can build out this infrastructure and cover, geographically, the entirety of Bloomington, and then deliver multiple ISP (internet service provider) options over that fiber to residential customers.” 

Until a year ago, Atlantic Engineering Group oversaw construction in areas where the city owns streets and has public rights of way. But the group was consolidated into a new company called Trueline, which ultimately went out of business. The city had also encountered issues with the company delaying repairs, violating permitting contracts and damaging public infrastructure.  

“A year delay is not desirable, but it's also not the end of the world,” Dietz said. “This is an investment that we see paying dividends for the community for decades to come.”  

In areas where the city doesn’t own the streets and rights of way, such as housing associations, mStreet Fiber, Meridiam’s local operating company, has continued construction to provide fiber access. Dietz said mStreet Fiber can do that because it is directly negotiating with the owners of these apartments.  

Dietz said he hopes the city can find a primary construction partner and resume work in May. The remaining construction is expected to take a year.