By Greg Ellison

Staff Writer

(Dec. 5, 2019) After beginning its multi-year infrastructure build-out project for Internet and cable service in Ocean Pines last Wednesday, Comcast held a town hall meeting Tuesday at the community center to provide details on the endeavor.

OPA President Doug Parks opened the meeting by turning the podium over to former board member Tom Terry, after noting the pair worked closely with OPA attorney Jeremy Tucker on the Comcast deal.

“This is special folks,” Terry said.

Tempering the good with bad, Terry said while the association would oversee the project’s execution, work will be ongoing for up to the next two years.

“It is my job to inform you … that this is going to be a construction site,” he said. “Be aware this is not going to be a pristine finger-food effort.”

Comcast Director of Technical Operations Tom Yates said Comcast plans to install fiber optic cable to feed specific nodes, or areas of homes, typically comprising 60 residences.

“What we’re building here is a hybrid fiber-coax network,” he said.

Yates said Ocean Pines service network would consist of 130 nodes divided into eight sections.

“We’ll be able to do the activations by sections,” he said.

Individual properties will be connected to adjacent nodes within 1,000 feet by coaxial cable.

“We’ll be putting new cable all the way to the side of your house,” he said.

Yates also said lines would be placed about two-feet underground.

“We will not cut driveways and we will not cut roads,” he said.

Noting the entire scope of work would likely run until at least early 2021, Yates said more precise estimates would be forthcoming.

“We’ll need about a month to understand how much we can do in a given day,” he said. “We’ll know more as we get into the month of December.”

Yates said the first two sections, located in the northwest area of Ocean Pines, should be completed by the middle of 2020.

“Before we’ll do any construction, you’ll see a door tag that will be placed in every home a couple days prior,” he said. “Our commitment, from a restoration perspective, is as good or better.”

Parks also reported that a meeting with current digital services provider, Mediacom, is set for this Thursday to discuss its plans in light of the upcoming market competition.

“Mediacom is still a service provider … in Ocean Pines and they will continue to do so until they decide they no longer want to provide their services,” he said.

Comcast Director of Technical Operation Tom Yates said updated overlay map detailing sectional work to install fiber and coaxial cables in Ocean Pines will be available online as work proceeds.