Tag Archive for: Loveland Pulse

Thompson School District Named 2021 Community Broadband & Digital Equity Award Winner for the Expansion of Pulse Municipal Broadband Network

LOVELAND, Colo. – Sept. 14, 2021 – The National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA) named Thompson School District (TSD) as a recipient of NATOA’s 2021 Community Broadband and Digital Equity Awards. Recognizing innovative programs in government, business and local communities nationwide, NATOA awarded TSD the COVID-19 Response Digital Equity Project of the Year – Distance Learning, for Thompson School District’s expansion of Pulse’s municipal fiber-to-the-premise network to the Big Thompson Canyon and the Lago Vista Mobile Home Park.

“The COVID crisis has demonstrated how critical local governments are to providing access to our most vulnerable communities, whether it be building infrastructure in underserved neighborhoods, distributing devices to support distance learning, or training isolated seniors,” noted NATOA president Brian Roberts. “The innovative and essential projects we are recognizing show how communities are stepping in to advance digital equity and fill broadband connectivity gaps.”

Earlier this year, Thompson School District applied for and was awarded $737,000 from the Connecting Colorado Students Grant program to expand reliable internet service to families in two areas within the Loveland community where connectivity is significantly limited or not available. With this grant, TSD and Pulse, the City’s community-owned communications utility, is building out infrastructure to students in parts of the Big Thompson Canyon and the Lago Vista Mobile Home Park. This award from NATOA recognizes the district’s efforts to provide equitable hardware, remote instruction and broadband access throughout the last school year.

In addition, TSD as part of the grant will sponsor a Pulse account for eligible students in these areas and pay for one year of internet service. Service for students is expected to be available starting in late 2021 for Lago Vista and mid-year 2022 for the Big Thompson Canyon.

These two locations are among TSD’s most underserved areas as they pose geographic challenges that limit access to cabled internet service and strong enough cell phone service necessary to make hotspots a viable option.

“Many districts throughout the country worked tirelessly to provide student devices, remote instructional software and broadband connectivity to their students.” said Dr. Matt Kuhn, TSD chief technology officer. “We are so honored to be recognized for our efforts to do so for the TSD community. Loveland Pulse is a great partner to help close the digital divide, especially in those parts of our community that are least able to access broadband infrastructure.”

“We are happy to have Thompson School District recognized, as they have been an exceptional leader in the community, serving as a champion of needs in broadband and technology.” said Lindsey Johansen, Pulse communications and marketing manager. “We are very fortunate to have them as partner in developing actionable and long-term solutions here locally.”

A full list of 2021 award winners can be found at www.natoa.org/broadband-and-digital-equity. Recipients will be recognized at NATOA’s 2021 Annual Conference, to be held in virtually September 21 – 23.

About Pulse

Pulse is a trusted local utility connecting the Loveland community by offering affordable, reliable, and fast internet and voice service through a 100% fiber-optic network. The community-owned utility was established in 2018 and built on a promise of local service, transparency in rates and speeds, and responsiveness second to none. Pulse will be available to all residents and businesses within the City of Loveland approximately four years after construction began in November 2019. For more information, please visit pulsefiber.org.

 

About Thompson School District

Thompson School District is the 17th largest school district in Colorado, encompassing 362 square miles and serving over 15,000 students. The district’s territory includes Loveland and Berthoud, plus sections of Fort Collins, Windsor, Johnstown, and unincorporated land in Larimer, Weld, and Boulder counties. TSD serves students in Pre-K through 12th grade with thirteen school-based preschool programs, a dedicated preschool building, one K-8 school, eighteen elementary schools, five middle schools, five high schools, and two charter schools. Teachers and administrators collaborate with families and community partners to ensure that students are college, career, and community ready.  For more information, please visit thompsonschools.org.

About NATOA

NATOA’s Mission is to support and serve the communications interests and needs of local governments. We are a professional association made up of individuals and organizations responsible for – or advising those responsible for – communications policies and services in local governments throughout the country. For more information, please visit natoa.org.

Loveland Pulse hits boring milestone: 1,000,000 feet!

Loveland Pulse, the City’s community-owned, 100% fiber-optic internet network, is in year two of what is estimated to be a four-year construction process to pass each and every address in the city. The project is on schedule, on budget, and milestones are being achieved regularly.

On June 28, 2021 (just 10 days after the first anniversary of residential service launch) the network construction team achieved a huge accomplishment: one million feet of boring in the city! 

 

For an idea of that distance, it would be similar to boring a straight line between Loveland and the Great Sand Dunes National Park, which is southwest of Pueblo. 

Pulse’s locally owned-and-operated partner, Colorado Boring – who you’ll recognize out in the field in their big, beautiful yellow trucks —  is employing a low-impact directional boring technique (as opposed to open trenching) to install conduit in utility easements and public-rights-of-way.  That conduit will then house the fiber-optics that will allow pulses of light travelling over threads of glass to bring gigabit internet, phone, and (coming soon!) television to homes and businesses. 

From the time you see boring teams and construction taking place in an area, until service becomes available, is approximately 6 – 9 months. 

If you’re interested in receiving communications about the project, and being emailed directly when construction is going to occur in your area, and later when service becomes available,  please sign up to stay in touch at: pulsefiber.org/EarlyInterest. If you have any questions, you can contact us by email at: Pulse@lovelandpulse.com, or by phone: 970-962-2111.

Pulse Works To Access Federal Relief Funds

Pulse works to access federal relief funds to offer free or reduced price internet service during the pandemic

Loveland Pulse, the City’s community-owned, 100% fiber-optic Internet utility, recently received approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to offer the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB). The EBB will provide discounts of up to $50 per month toward broadband Internet service for eligible households.

As part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 that was signed into law at the end of 2020, Congress tasked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with developing a new $3.2 billion program to help U.S. households that are struggling to pay for internet service during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Who qualifies?

Loveland residents will be able to apply for a monthly credit up to $50 if they meet the household eligibility guidelines. A household is eligible if one member of the household:

  • Qualifies for the Lifeline program
  • Receives benefits under the free and reduced-price school lunch or breakfast program
  • Received a Federal Pell Grant during the current award year
  • Experienced a substantial loss of income since February 29, 2020, and the household had a total income in 2020 below $99,000 for single filers and $198,000 for joint filers

The EBB is limited to one monthly service discount per eligible household. To participate through Pulse, households must be within a fiber-enabled service area. To see if service is available in your area, contact 970-962-2111.

When and how can eligible households sign up? 

Enrollment is now open! Interested residents can visit www.pulsefiber.org/EBB and follow the steps to begin their eligibility verification and program enrollment.

The EBB will continue until designated federal funds are expended. It is important to note that nationwide interest and participation in the program is strong and it is unclear how long funds will last. 

“Although we are only in our second year of a four-year process to bring this critical utility to every address in Loveland, we are happy to be able to participate in this important program, allowing serviceable residents access to federal relief funding,” said Brieana Reed-Harmel, Municipal Fiber Manager. “Pulse understands the significance of our responsibility to support the connectivity needs of our community.  Ensuring equitable access to high-quality internet for all is one of the reasons we exist.”

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Updated: May 12, 2021

Thompson School District secures $737,000 in grant funding to connect underserved students through Pulse

We are excited to share some news with our partner Thompson School District (TSD).

TSD has been awarded $737,000 from the Connecting Colorado Students Grant program to expand reliable internet service to families in two areas within the Loveland community where connectivity is significantly limited or not available. With this grant, the district plans to partner with Pulse, the City’s community-owned communications utility providing high-speed internet and voice services, to build out infrastructure to students in parts of the Big Thompson Canyon and the Lago Vista Mobile Home Park.

These two locations are among TSD’s most underserved areas as they pose geographic challenges that limit access to cabled internet service and strong enough cell phone service necessary to make hotspots a viable option.

“Over the last year, our district has worked diligently to assist families who haven’t had adequate access to the internet by offering and facilitating connection options; but we quickly recognized that for some areas of the community there weren’t viable options,” said Dr. Matt Kuhn, TSD chief technology officer. “This grant money directly addresses the issue for families in these areas – we now have the resources to bring reliable internet to them so that access to learning and information will no longer be a barrier.”

“Pulse was formed to address, among other things, the disparity of access to reliable high-speed internet access within our community,” said Loveland City Manager Steve Adams. “As a local internet service provider, and TSD partner, we have the ability, desire and duty to support the educational needs of students within our district who don’t have sufficient access to the internet.”

The Connecting Colorado Students Grant program was created in 2020 after Colorado state lawmakers passed House Bill 20B-1001 moving $20 million from the general fund to this new grant program aimed to increase access to broadband services for students, educators, and other staff who lack stable, reliable internet access for online learning.

We will work with TSD to begin the planning process with property owners and other stakeholders in preparation for network installation. More information, such as timeframe, are forthcoming.

 

Loveland PulseTV is coming to town

Before everybody settles in for a holiday hibernation and prepares for their long winter’s nap, we want to give you and your sugar plum fairies something to look forward to in the new year.   

We can now confirm that PulseTV is coming to town! 

 

Although details are still being ironed out, and timelines have not been finalized, we are sure that we will be adding this service in the next calendar year – creating a true triple-play offering, with 100% fiber-optic internet, home telephone service, and now television. 

One of the biggest concerns our community expressed about “cutting the cable cord” or transitioning away from other internet providers, was losing access to television programming favorites. With PulseTV, we’ve got you covered  – you will be able to enjoy your live, local, and nationally broadcast shows like never before.

PulseTV was designed specifically for the residents of Loveland. We are proud to offer a new, flexible way to experience your favorite programming.  Traditional TV set? Smart TV? Tablet? Smart phone? Desktop or laptop? – No matter which device you want to watch your favorite shows, that is where we will serve it to you.

Again – it’s not available yet – it’s coming soon! But with 100 hours of cloud-based DVR recording space, an option to create three unique household viewing profiles, integration with Apple, Android and Amazon devices, video-on-demand, and other 21st century features – we were just too excited not to share this news with you now. 

So, let us know you’d like to learn more about PulseTV by signing up on our Early Interest page – and in the meantime, dream of all the ways Loveland Pulse is working hard to make your digital world better in every way. 

Stay in Touch with Loveland Pulse

Loveland Pulse Capitalizes on Power Project to Bring Fiber and High-Speed Internet to Big Thompson Elementary

New service allows the school to say goodbye to slow connection and hello to Gigabit speeds.

Loveland Pulse, the City’s communications utility providing high-speed internet and voice services, has installed its 100% fiber-optic network with gigabit internet speeds to Big Thompson Elementary School (BTES) which had poor network connectivity. Pulse was able to capitalize on a Platte River Power Authority (PRPA) project and the power division’s recent electric line upgrades to install its network up to the school. 

Loveland Pulse engineers test new 100% fiber-optic network recently installed at Big Thompson Elementary.

“Our partnership with the Thompson School District made us aware of the severe need at BTES. When our team realized that we could work together with other utilities to save money installing our fiber, we knew we had to jump at the opportunity,” said Brieanna Reed-Harmel, Pulse manager. “The move provides cost savings to Pulse and advances the goal of improved connections for the City and the school district. We will continue to take advantage of other ways to save money and get more people connected through these kinds of collaborations. ”

The City’s move solves a big problem for BTES and Thompson School District (TSD) as students return to schools for in-person learning. Unlike other TSD schools, BTES was on a much slower internet connection due to its location. A 4G connection was turned on over the summer and before that, the school was limited to using radio point-to-point at a bandwidth much lower than 4G. According to TSD Chief Technology Officer Matt Kuhn, before Pulse, the bandwidth at BTES was so low that the school was limited in the types of learning software it could access – the same software that other schools with better internet connections were able to implement. 

“BTES Students could not do nearly as much, as quickly, on the internet as other students. Since most of our software is cloud-based, this was a major problem,” said Kuhn. “Now BTES is not limited by their bandwidth. They can video conference, engage in interactive software, and more with ease thanks to the reliability, high-speed, and symmetrical speeds. Plus, the district no longer has to maintain two different kinds of internet connections to our schools, easing processes and saving us money.”

For BTES, a TSD Ubiquitous Technology Access School focused on blended learning and STEM, the network limitations had a cost to teachers and students as well. 

According to BTES principal Sarah Walgast,  the school has been working to increase technology integration for a few years now. Teachers have been building blended learning models with the hopes of incorporating virtual field trips and tours, meetings with students at other schools and community groups and more.  The unreliable network made it impossible for the school to successfully incorporate those resources. BTES even needed to stagger when classes were online, even through testing, so that students could work online uninterrupted. 

“It was extremely frustrating for our teachers to build out effective blended learning curriculum for students and have our poor connection stand in the way,” said Walgast. “The digital world is our students’ world and as a school, we need to meet our students where they are at. Upgrading to the Loveland Pulse network will help us immensely and we are incredibly grateful for this partnership that will bring so much value to our school and our families.” 

Pulse began constructing its network in November 2019 and it will take three to four years from that date to complete phase 1 of the project, within Loveland city limits. Phase two includes the rest of the City’s electric service area, including Big Thompson Canyon residents. 

“Our local Pulse team can’t wait to see how our network improves the lives of the teachers and students in our schools, starting with BTES,” said Reed-Harmel. “We know there is a critical need for reliable, high-speed internet service across the area and want to thank everyone in the community for their patience as we are doing everything we can to install our network safely and efficiently to get our residents and businesses the connections they deserve.”