COSHOCTON - Wireless Internet for Coshocton County took a solid step forward Monday as the installation of 10 antennas on the Killbuck Tower was started and completed.

The Killbuck Tower will serve as the hub for the county Internet system, sending links out to the other towers and providing an umbrella link for those in the Blissfield area.

"That's the key tower and it has to be first," said Kyle Yoder, Lightspeed Solutions president.

Lightspeed is deploying the wireless Internet and running it in the county. Yoder said the company has 10 other projects they are working on in other counties, but Coshocton is a major focus for them.

"This is a pretty important two-year project we've been working on with the (Coshocton County) commissioners. It's the first public-private partnership in the state of Ohio for wireless Internet," said Yoder.

Yoder stressed that the commissioners "bent over backwards" to make the project a realization and it wouldn't have come this far without their cooperation.

"The residents of Coshocton County should realize their commissioners and politicians have really seen this project through. We've gone into some counties where the politicians are not forward thinking enough on what their constituents need. The Coshocton Commissioners have really devoted a lot of time to get this accomplished," said Kyle Quillen, chief technology officer for Lightspeed.

Work on towers near River View High School and New Castle are set to begin in the next seven to 10 days, depending on weather, with all towers to be finished within the next 30 to 45 days, five primary towers and two tertiary towers total.

Yoder said that once the next two towers are completed the company would start offering Internet service to residents.

Those interested can go online to www.lightspeedwireless.com or call1-888-602-4807 for pricing and other information

Source: Coshocton Tribune