Race wins 2nd place at annual IEEP “Red Tape to Red Carpet” awards.
On Wednesday, November 7th the Inland Empire Economic Partnership hosted their sixth annual “Turning Red Tape to Red Carpet” awards ceremony. Race Communications was nominated for the “Smart City/Smart County” award alongside OntarioNet and Connect Anza. This award recognizes cities and counties that have taken innovative approaches to provide reliable high-speed internet to their residents and businesses.
Race has been in business for over 20 years and for the past 9 years we have been working in parallel with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to provide affordable gigabit fiber internet to rural unserved and underserved communities across California. We would not be able to do this without the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF).
“Gigafy Phelan” is our tenth grant project – and also one of our largest, covering 98 square miles. Once fully built, our network will provide fiber to the home gigabit internet to over 7,600 homes and businesses. To date, over 600 residents and business owners have been installed.
Since we began providing services in May, we have seen several positive social and economic improvements. Residents are now pursuing online higher education and working to complete degrees, local community groups are forming science and technology-based learning groups and advancing digital literacy, and homes and businesses are implementing the use of wireless security systems in crime-prone areas.
We want to thank the Inland Empire Economic Partnership for recognizing our efforts in the community as well as the staff at Race and the community of Phelan. This project would not be the success that it is without either.
Connect Anza took home first place for their efforts in Anza and the surrounding areas – The first strands of fiber were hung in July 2015 and bringing high-speed Internet has been a welcome change. The system is still being built, but now encompasses most of their cooperatives service territory in the Anza and Aguanga areas. Construction to serve the eastern areas of the cooperative will begin soon.
OntarioNet claimed 3rd place. The project, which is powered by Inyo Networks, will provide high-speed Internet, Ethernet, and Voice over IP services to the City of Ontario and its businesses. All services are using a crystal clear, all-fiber network.