{"id":23271,"date":"2025-03-05T13:39:17","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T20:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-prioritized-fiber-internet-years-ago-where-is-the-city-at-now\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:31:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:31:44","slug":"cortez-prioritized-fiber-internet-years-ago-where-is-the-city-at-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-prioritized-fiber-internet-years-ago-where-is-the-city-at-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez prioritized fiber internet years ago. Where is the city at now?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A
A Clearnetworx truck parked in Cortez. (Madison Clark\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The city of Cortez first leased its fiber operations to Montrose-based Clearnetworx in 2023, and it\u2019s installing lines to more than 4,500 addresses within city limits.<\/p>\n

So far, over 1,100 people in Cortez have signed up for fiber and 500 are actively using it.<\/p>\n

By July, the build-out should be complete.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big undertaking, but it\u2019s been super-fun,\u201d said Madison Clark, marketing director at Clearnetworx<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As it stands, there\u2019s just one area left on the east side of the city that\u2019s awaiting construction.<\/p>\n

\"A
A screenshot of Clearnetworx\u2019s map detailing its fiber installation progress in Cortez. Green means fiber is live, and orange parts are \u201cunder construction.\u201d Only one portion of the city is still \u201cwaiting on construction,\u201d on the east side of the city.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The rest of Cortez either has fiber now or is under construction, which means Clearnetworx\u2019s sister construction company Deeply Digital<\/a> or a local contractor is out installing fiber lines, said Clark.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re kind of in the last spring with Cortez. There\u2019s new zones coming up every month,\u201d said Casey Irving, the director of business development at Clearnetworx. \u201cIt\u2019s exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clearnetworx is running about a year behind schedule, but they\u2019re \u201cmaking really good progress,\u201d said Cortez City Manager Drew Sanders.<\/p>\n

Irving said they\u2019re behind because it took a year to integrate the fiber Cortez already had into a new system, a project they expected to take six months, at most. Plus, they\u2019re hanging or burying new lines all over the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re building out a new utility that didn\u2019t exist before,\u201d said Irving. \u201cIt takes a lot of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clark explained that the lines are installed aerially or underground.<\/p>\n

The former is the most time efficient of the two, as they\u2019re hung from existing utility poles. Burying lines underground tends to require more labor and time.<\/p>\n

In downtown areas, lines are usually installed aerially.<\/p>\n

In Cortez, from East Empire to East Seventh Street, west of North Mildred Road, lines are being installed aerially, said Clark. In areas without poles, lines are buried.<\/p>\n

As far as how long construction takes, \u201cit\u2019s hard to give a time frame\u201d because of the two different methods, said Clark.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust know it\u2019s a construction and utility project that takes time,\u201d Clark said. \u201cTrust we\u2019re working as hard and as fast as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Crews
Crews burying fiber lines in Cortez, which takes longer and is much more labor intensive than laying lines on existing utility poles. (Madison Clark\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Fiber history in Cortez<\/div>\n

Since the early 2000s, Cortez \u201chad been passively taking the opportunity to install fiber lines with road projects, slowly building out our fiber network,\u201d said Mayor Rachel Medina.<\/p>\n

Over a 20-year period, Cortez invested about $1.6 million into building a fiber network that benefited its schools, city and county buildings.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the pandemic, people were working from home and realizing that people can\u2019t live without the internet,\u201d Medina said. \u201cIt\u2019s truly a utility. It\u2019s not necessarily treated like that but it is, and that\u2019s why we wanted to push it forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2021, after Sanders was hired on, the city hired a consultant to estimate how much it\u2019d cost to fully build out its fiber network. It put out a request for bids and decided to partner with Clearnetworx after realizing it would cost $14 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat could\u2019ve been disastrous for the city,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cAnd it would\u2019ve cost way more with inflation and paying back bonds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clearnetworx paid the city $1.8 million for its existing network and is covering costs to complete the build-out.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt turned out to be a very good partnership with them,\u201d said Sanders.<\/p>\n

Where all will fiber be available?<\/div>\n

Fiber will be available outside city limits, too.<\/p>\n

In partnering with Cortez, Clearnetworx got access to building and installing fiber to the county, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re trying to build a strong system, so they made the investment,\u201d said Sanders.<\/p>\n

Irving echoed this point.<\/p>\n

He said that \u201cmiddle mile connectivity,\u201d which is fiber in-between communities, creates a more reliable and resilient network overall.<\/p>\n

Plus, it brings access to rural areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cIdeally everyone will have access to fiber, even if you live outside city limits,\u201d said Irving.<\/p>\n

To make fiber build-outs happen in more rural areas, Irving said they \u201cleverage grant money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, the state awarded Clearnetworx upward of $30 million to fund fiber projects in rural parts Southwest Colorado, the most money the region \u201chas ever seen\u201d for such projects, he said.<\/p>\n

That money is supporting two projects already underway in Montezuma County that will connect Cortez to Mancos and Mancos to Dolores.<\/p>\n

Right now, Clearnetworx is doing the permitting, preconstruction work to make those projects \u2013 possibly \u2013 start on-the-ground in late summer or fall this year. That would ideally open the door for more rural areas in the county to access fiber by spring summer next year, said Irving.<\/p>\n

Zooming out, Clearnetworx is working to supply fiber and build a resilient, interconnected network across the Western Slope.<\/p>\n

\u201cFiber has a 50-year life span,\u201d said Irving. \u201cIt\u2019s a future-proof solution to keep up with technology needs for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

far, 500 people within city limits are actively using fiber<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,28,60,29,258],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter","tag-western-slope"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23271"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78046,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23271\/revisions\/78046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23271"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}