Sep 25, 2024 Update:
Please note the City of Rico has a trench moratorium effective Oct 1 – but all main lines should in by then for phases 1 and 2. 

All drops in phase 1 are done. By the end of Nov, drops to home will be completed for phase 2.

May 2024, Rico, Colorado

The 2024 construction season on the continuing Rico Fiber upgrade will get underway the week of May 13, 2024.

Rico Telephone/Directcom was originally hoping to begin work again this year by May 6, but due to some logistical delays, had to postpone the start date by a week.

Work this year on the fiber upgrade will be completed in 2 overlapping phases.

Phase 1 will include homes on the west side of  Hwy 145, which is about 64 homes. Mainline construction work on this phase will begin the week of May 13 and should be done by mid-July, after which time Rico Telephone will begin the final process of actually cutting (or transferring) customers over from the DSL network to the Fiber network individually. At this point, customers will be able to choose a new fiber speed tier.

Phase 2 will start mainline construction work in mid-June. Phase 2 will include homes on the east side of  Hwy 145.

Residents in Phase 1 can expect to begin seeing construction crews working in their neighborhoods after May 13. Actual digging or boring along streets in Phase 1 will hopefully be very minimal because Rico Telephone will make extensive use of the existing underground duct. Any digging will mostly be around existing handholds or to install new handholes, where fiber will be spliced into branches that split off to individual homes. About a month later, cable crews will be pulling fiber through the mainline conduit, and finally, a drop crew will install conduit and fiber through yards to individual homes, and a splicing crew will make the final splices. Fiber splicing is a very delicate process where strands of glass fibers are carefully melted or fused together to service each customer home.

Thank you for your patience as we work to upgrade the network in Rico from copper to new, state-of-the-art Fiber. Soon, Rico residents will have access to Gigabit Internet speeds.

If you have any concerns as the work proceeds, please call 801 789 2800.