Fatbeam LLC, a fiber-optic broadband provider based in Coeur d’Alene, says it has secured contracts with school districts in Pasco, Wash., and Bend, Ore.

The company says in a press release that it will install a total of 58 miles of fiber to upgrade the infrastructures of the Bend School District and Pasco School District. The project involves modernizing Internet capabilities for 24 facilities in the Pasco School District and for 23 facilities in Bend School District.

Separately, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Mignon Clyburn gave Fatbeam kudos during a recent FCC hearing. He praised the company for its efforts to “deploy and provide smaller markets with competitive options.” 

Fatbeam says it now operates fiber networks in more than 18 markets in Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, with network development soon to occur in Oregon.

“Markets under 150,000 in population are frequently lacking competitive options for fiber-based services,” says Fatbeam President Greg Green in the release. In addition to the school districts, he says Fatbeam also will invest in those areas to reach core business parks, developments, and other important facilities with the hopes of helping to spur economic development.

Fatbeam was co-founded in 2010 by Green and Shawn Swanby, owner of Post Falls-based Ednetics Inc., and operates out of a 3,000-square foot office in downtown Coeur d’Alene.

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 to deliver Internet service to their customers.