Intermax starts serving city-owned fiber optic cable in Sandpoint

Coeur d’Alene-based Intermax Networks has become the internet service provider for a newly installed city-owned fiber optic cable between downtown Sandpoint and city hall, a distance of about a half mile.

Access to the municipal fiber optic cable allows Intermax to roughly double its fiber optic service in Sandpoint, Intermax President Mike Kennedy said.

Intermax, the largest independent internet, voice and data network provider in the Inland Northwest, has 1.76 miles of its own fiber optic cable in the downtown Sandpoint core bounded by First and Fifth avenues and Cedar and Pine streets. The city agreement allows Intermax to extend its service about a half mile west to the city hall area.

The city’s cable runs from Bonner General Hospital through downtown on Third Avenue, continues west on Church Street to briefly join U.S. 2 before finishing at city hall at Lake Street and Olive Avenue. Intermax expects to add branch lines to serve customers within about a half to 1 mile of the main cable, Kennedy said.

“The city is trying to jumpstart the availability of fiber everywhere,” Kennedy said in a phone interview.

Intermax serves cities and rural areas in Kootenai, Bonner, Boundary, Benewah, and Spokane counties. This is the first time the company, established in 2001, is providing service on a city-owned fiber optic cable, Kennedy said.

The city recently installed two fiber optic cables. One connects municipal properties for city use; the other is described as an “economic development” fiber network available for the private sector to lease and provide service.

“The city has worked for years to make this happen, and we’re proud to have Intermax be the first provider on the city’s network,” said Jennifer Stapleton, Sandpoint city administrator, in a news release. “They are a local North Idaho company who has many clients in Sandpoint and Bonner County.”

Intermax has served Bonner County for 14 years with rural microwave internet, installing its first fiber optic cable in downtown Sandpoint six years ago, Kennedy said.