City Fiber Agreements

fiber agreements

  • WHAT ARE THE CITY FIBER AGREEMENTS

    Since CarverLink went live in 2013, we have worked with the primary service provider in our network, Jaguar Communications, to utilize and expand the existing network to make available fiber service to additional businesses and residential addresses.

    Based on our positive and mutually beneficial working partnership with Jaguar, we were able to encourage them to complete fiber overlays/overbuilds (which means running fiber to every location within city limits) in the cities of NYA in 2017, and Hamburg, Mayer and New Germany in 2019.

    It has been a shared vision of both CarverLink and Jaguar leadership to build out all of Carver County, both rural and urban, in the most expeditious yet financially viable and sustainable manner.

    In July of 2020, Jaguar Communications out of Owatonna, MN, which was primarily a small community and rural build fiber service provider, was acquired by Metronet out of Evansville, IN, one of the country's largest fiber service providers, which primarily services non metro urban communities with populations over 75,000.

    With Metronet's larger community build mentality, CarverLink staff spent considerable time and effort with Metronet's top leadership to help them understand the unique and mutually beneficial relationship we hoped for them to carry over from Jaguar, and the shared vision we both had regarding building out all of Carver County, both in our rural and small community urban areas, to make high speed broadband available to anyone that desires it.

    In the fiber industry there are basically two types of fiber construction, urban and rural, both having their own unique requirements and complexities, with both being very different types of fiber builds.

    There are 11 cities  in Carver County: Carver, Chanhassen, Chaska, Cologne, Hamburg, Mayer, New Germany, Norwood Young America (NYA), Victoria, Waconia and Watertown

    Based on the County's considerable efforts, even though none of the cities in Carver County meet the typical Metronet fiber build size, we have been able to foster, and through a CarverLink drafted non-binding agreement that is used between Metronet and each respective city, we have been able to facilitate what we call City Fiber Agreements between Metronet and the following Carver County cities, for Metronet to build out fiber to all locations within the city limits of each respective city:

    Cologne (2020 handshake agreement – construction Nov 2020, completion by 2024) Click here for Metronet updates on their City of Cologne Fiber Buildout

    Carver (Dec 2021 signed agreement – construction start Feb 2022, completion by 2024) Click here for Metronet updates on their City of Carver Fiber Buildout

    Chanhassen (Dec 2021 signed agreement but in October 2023 Metronet informed the City that due to the economics, they no longer had plans to construct fiber in the City.  CarverLink has stepped in and is having ongoing discussions with Metronet to show them the value of building in Chanhassen.

    Watertown (Dec 2022 signed agreement – anticipated construction start 2024-2025)

    Waconia (Dec 2022 signed agreement – construction start Nov 2022) Click here for Metronet updates on their City of Waconia Fiber Buildout

    CarverLink staff are continuing to promote and facilitate discussions between Metronet and our two remaining non fiber completed or planned cities of Victoria and Chaska.