Pend Oreille Public Utility District (PUD) said it is using fiber to the home (FTTH) installation kits from Brooks Utility Products to extend high speed broadband to underserved areas in Pend Oreille County.

Pend Oreille PUD is using a federal ARRA grant under the Broadband Technologies and Opportunity Program, to expand its fiber optic network in Pend Oreille County, Wash., east of Seattle, covering an area that stretches from the border with Canada south to Spokane. The project is expected to cost $34.5 million.

“Safe, efficient installation was vital to our objectives to deliver fiber to approximately 5,000 households, 360 businesses and 24 anchor institutions,” said supervisor Robert Fritz of Pend Oreille’s Community Network System (CNS). “Brooks’ FTTH installation kits gave our installers a turnkey package to install the adapter and wiring in one package. When deploying at volume, as we did, this was a real advantage.”

Brooks is an old-line manufacturer of meters and related equipment for the utility industry. The company recently branched out into adapters and complete field kits for fiber installation. The kits support installation of the battery backup power supply, battery, adapter, and wiring in one package. The adapters provide an integrated power supply for converting the utility line voltage to 12V.

“We created the FTTH field installation kit in response to utilities like Pend Oreille who want the seamless installation of a variety of complex parts and systems into a simple to install package,” said Brooks President Jeff Hanft.

Pend Oreille PUD consists of four primary operating systems. The Box Canyon Power Generation hydro system and the Electric Distribution Department, which distributes electricity to approximately 8,500 customers in Pend Oreille County. The water system owns and operates nine individual water distribution systems. The Community Network System provides fiber optic based wholesale telecommunications to most anchor institutions, businesses, and residents.