SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) –More Midco customers are starting to feel the effects of the company’s $500 million Fiber Forward initiative.

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In 2021, Midco announced the major infrastructure investment that will allow customers to access 10 gigabit speeds in their homes or businesses. The impact some customers are already seeing in tonight’s your money matters.

“There’s a lot of dirt that’s going to move, there’s a lot of land work that has to be done,” Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken said during Midco’s initial Fiber Forward announcement in 2021.

That work has continued since Midco’s Fiber Forward program was first announced in 2021.

“We’re feeling good about being on track two years in we spent a lot of time upgrading our core infrastructure, our technical facilities, fiber background and now upgrading neighborhoods,” Midco’s Chief Operating Officer Ben Dold said. “The process of replacing an old network with a new one is very labor intensive, we’re fortunate that we have great team members that are here local within the community to do the work.”

As Midco construction crews have been making their way throughout Sioux Falls the past couple of years, many customers are starting to notice a change in their service.

“The biggest thing a consumer is going to see is faster speeds and better reliability as part of these upgrades,” Dold said.

“A lot less instances where it might start over and kind of glitch, so I think we’ve seen more consistency and less disruption,” Sioux Falls remote worker Heather Krause.

Heather Krause has been working from home full time since 2020. When she previously struggled with some of the common zoom call glitches and delays, until last month when the Midco crews came to her neighborhood.

“We might have been one of the first,” Krause said. “We’ve had it for more than a month now I think.”

She’s already noticing the difference in her service, something all Midco consumers will feel when the Fiber Forward initiative is complete in 2026.

“The whole Fiber Forward program will eventually impact every customer across our footprint, in the Dakotas, Minnesota, Kansas and Wisconsin. Right now we’re focusing our efforts in the Sioux Falls area,” Dold said. “When this project is complete we will have a network that will serve our customers for a decade plus.”

Midco is communicating with customers directly as the fiber upgrade work comes to their neighborhood. Krause says the upgrade at their home was done over a four-hour window that she knew well in advance so she could plan ahead for the short disruption in internet service.