Coeur d’Alene-based fiber-optic provider Fatbeam LLC says it has secured a $2 million contract with an undisclosed local carrier that will install 100 miles of fiber from Liberty Lake into North Idaho, through Kootenai County and winding its way north into Boundary County.

Reached in Washington, D.C., on Monday, before meeting with Federal Communications Commission officials this week, Fatbeam CEO Greg Green says just a little more than 200,000 people will be served when the fiber optic network is installed.

Green wouldn’t disclose whether the contract is with a wireless Internet or cellular provider.

“As there are confidentiality agreements often in place, we respect the security of these fiber networks,” Green says.

Fatbeam builds high-capacity fiber optic networks and then leases connectivity through what is referred to as dark fiber—or fiber infrastructure—on a wholesale basis to hospitals, businesses, and other providers who use the infrastructure for Internet service.

Green and Shawn Swanby, owner of Post Falls-based Ednetics Inc., co-founded Fatbeam in 2010 and now run the company in 3,000 square feet of office space in downtown Coeur d’Alene.

Green says it will take between a year and two years for the complete fiber optic network build-out. The project will connect Eastern Washington to North Idaho within miles of the Canadian border, and he says discussions are underway to connect Fatbeam’s network to Canadian carriers.

“It’s kind of the first (deal) of its kind where a North Idaho carrier is actually going to have fiber that goes up into Canada,” Green says. “We’re pretty excited about this contract.”

Last year, Fatbeam won a fiber service contract with Boundary County School District to deliver broadband service between its school locations.

The project earned recognition from the FCC as a rural broadband success in North Idaho.

Fatbeam currently has networks with almost 400 fiber route miles in 35 markets in Washington, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Nevada, Wyoming, and Arizona.