Nicole Rindfuss is the first customer connected to Surf’s fiber network in Lake Village. “With incredibly fast speed, we don’t have to worry about who is doing what,” Rindfuss said. “Surf Internet has helped destress our household!”
Rindfuss’ family’s home is among the first of roughly 1,000 addresses Surf will connect this year across the two communities, with further expansion to serve over 2,000 homes in 2024.
The broadband provider is investing nearly $1 million of its capital for the projects. It has leveraged $600,000 of Next Level Connections (NLC) grant funding to connect to the area’s most difficult-to-reach addresses.
Gene Crusie, Surf’s CEO, said that its partnership with local communities is helping it bring service to more challenging-to-reach rural areas like Lake Village and Kouts. “Northwest Indiana is a great success story,” he said. “With so many small communities in the area, we were able to work with local leadership to bring in grant money along with our private funding.”
Surf’s work in northwest Indiana is part of the provider’s commitment to build an advanced fiber network serving rural communities across the Great Lakes region of Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan.
The provider continues to make progress with its fiber broadband build. Surf recently announced that it completed the passing of 100,000 locations with fiber across the states of Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois.