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Gigabit Internet Speeds Come to Colusa County, Calif.

Through a collaboration between local ministries and RACE Communications, Williams Community Church is the first site with gigabit Internet in Colusa County, a step toward better Internet access in the rural community.

gigabit
(TNS) — Through a collaborative effort between local ministries and RACE Communications, Williams Community Church is now the first site with gigabit internet speed in all of Colusa County — taking the first step to bring much-needed internet access to the rural community.

" Williams Community Church is humbled to take part in the beginning of such a great change for our county," said Williams Community Church Pastor Jason McMullan.

To commemorate the achievement, the church hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony and town hall event last week, where RACE Communication representatives were on hand to answer questions about the service, field concerns about the technology and discuss current and future plans for rolling out this service across the county. At this time, there are plans to roll out the service in Arbuckle and Colusa in the near future.

Lunch was also provided by the Arbuckle-based food truck, Sauced.

"Today was great," said McMullan after the town hall on June 15. "We had the CEO of RACE Communications, Raul Alcaraz, visiting with his leadership and technical team and they answered a great deal of questions from all of our neighbors that attended."

RACE is a fully licensed telecommunications company dedicated to providing reliable, fiber-based, high-speed internet and advanced communications at an affordable price, according to officials.

"RACE understands that broadband internet access consists of two vastly different worlds between rural and urban areas and is working to bridge that gap," said officials.

To date, officials said RACE has been awarded over a dozen separate grants from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) through the California Public Utilities Commission to advance broadband adoption and infrastructure deployment in unserved and underserved areas.

"Residents in the company's fiber footprint can enjoy gigabit download and upload speeds available with fiber-optic technology as well as fiber-based phone and television services," said officials.

Services provided by RACE run $10-$95 per month.

According to RACE officials, the initial CASF grant was approved for development in Williams in November 2020 and construction began in the summer of 2021. Construction was completed by May 2022 and the first official installations began June 8.

The total cost of the project was $8,448,507, according to RACE officials.

"The team at RACE Communications partners with local leaders and municipalities to meet the individual community's needs and work diligently to bring robust network solutions to these cities," said officials.

© 2022 the Appeal-Democrat (Marysville, Calif.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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