Fatbeam LLC, a Post Falls-based provider of broadband fiber-optic networks, has an estimated $2.7 million fiber-optic cable installation project well under way for a network that will extend between Coeur d'Alene and Liberty Lake.

Fatbeam President Greg Green says the project will offer a high-capacity fiber-optics network for connectivity across the state line.

The project will include 49 miles of fiber-optic cable and is expected to be finished by the end of November, Green says. Coeur d'Alene and Post Falls portions of the new Fatbeam network are complete, he adds.

"A number of clients will be served—school districts, carriers, hospitals, government agencies," Green says. "We lease fiber optic connectivity to carriers, large businesses, hospitals, and city and county governments. The carriers could be telephone, Internet, and cable providers."

He says the Post Falls and Coeur d'Alene school districts are among public entities using the network. Intermax Network Inc., a Coeur d'Alene-based Internet and broadband service provider, is another example of a Fatbeam ISP customer that's leasing capacity, Green says.

Green says the new Fatbeam network will be an alternative route to an existing fiber-optic cable route between Coeur d'Alene and Liberty Lake that's owned by a different company.

He says city of Liberty Lake regulations require that fiber-optic cable there be installed completely underground, as opposed to above-ground via power poles, so that portion of the work involves digging and is about 50 percent complete.

In Liberty Lake, Green says the fiber optic line will tie into a facility operated by TierPoint LLC, which offers data center services that include data backup, cloud computing, and connectivity in a secured, climate-controlled environment for clients across the U.S.

The Fatbeam network will offer a combination of what is called lit fiber for active use and what's called dark fiber, which refers to fiber-optic cable that has been laid but isn't yet carrying a signal.

Green says the new network will provide another tool for economic development for the Inland Northwest.

"Connectivity and bandwidth are so valuable today to running a business," he adds.

He says the capital investment for the project is being funded by investments from Fatbeam's owners, Green and Shawn Swanby, as well as through bank financing.

Green says Fatbeam also owns fiber networks in or near Centralia, Yakima, Sunnyside, Medical Lake, and Walla Walla, Wash.

Fatbeam was founded in mid-2010. Headquartered at 971 S. Clearwater Loop in Post Falls, the company currently employs five people, including Green.