Inside one of OEC Fiber’s network huts, brightly colored jumpers weave through tall racks of electronics, each strand labeled and routed to a precise destination. In some huts, crews must account for roughly 1,500 connections as they build a new network alongside the one already carrying internet service to subscribers.

The work inside those huts began with a broader question: What will OEC Fiber’s network need to handle next?

OEC Fiber began building its fiber network in 2017. By 2024, team leaders began to see early signs of aging in some of the electronics installed during the network’s early years. Software updates for certain equipment slowed, while some components required more attention, including occasional reboots or replacement parts.

The network was getting older, and the way people used it was changing, too.

Since 2017, streaming has become routine, homes have filled with connected devices and remote and hybrid work have made reliable home internet even more essential. Smart TVs, phones and computers now share bandwidth with doorbells, cameras, thermostats, appliances, gaming systems and other devices.

“Everyone’s relying on streaming,” said Michael Tomas, senior manager of technology services and network operations. “With the technology advancing and everyone buying all this new technology to make their houses smarter, it’s just using more bandwidth.”

So OEC Fiber began planning for what the network would need next.

The approach is familiar for a member-owned cooperative. Maintaining critical infrastructure means looking beyond what works today.

On OEC’s electric system, teams study system conditions, plan improvements and invest in technology designed to strengthen reliability for years to come. Broadband requires the same kind of stewardship, even if its electronics move through technology cycles much faster than poles and power lines.

For OEC Fiber, the upgrade is another investment in infrastructure that members and subscribers increasingly depend on for work, school, entertainment and everyday life.

“We’re future-proofing the network,” Michael said. “We’re reinvesting in the technology to bring it up to speed so we can better serve our members and subscribers.”

Trenton McVicker, manager of TV & network operations, said planning for equipment replacement is part of managing the system responsibly.

“We’re just trying to ensure we’re planning accordingly, budgeting accordingly, so we’re not taking something past its ideal lifespan,” Trenton said.

Once OEC Fiber knew it was time to look ahead, the next question was what technology should carry the network into its next chapter.

Choosing what comes next

A project of this scale starts long before crews carry equipment into a hut.

The OEC Fiber team spent about a year researching options before selecting a new system. Team members spoke with other cooperatives and internet providers already using the equipment and brought competing systems into OEC Fiber’s lab for testing.

“We were doing our due diligence,” Michael said. “We were talking to other co-ops that had this and the competitors’ hardware that could be used. We actually had both running in the lab downstairs.”

So they put the equipment through its paces.

“We were testing hardware equipment, speeds and reliability,” Michael said. “We actually have equipment in there that we can test freezing temperatures and hot temperatures, just to see how the equipment reacts.”

Those extremes are hardly hypothetical in Oklahoma. Summer temperatures can climb into the triple digits, while hard freezes and ice storms test equipment in winter. Subscriber equipment may serve barns, gates and other spaces without heating or air conditioning.

The team considered how the equipment performed in working networks, how manufacturers supported their products and whether the technology could serve OEC Fiber well for years.

That research eventually led OEC Fiber to the system it is now installing across the network.

“For about the last year or so, we’ve been working really hard on upgrading all the equipment at our substations,” said David Goodspeed, OEC Fiber president.

Choosing the equipment sets the direction. Turning the plan into a working network became the hands-on part.

The same fiber, a bigger hose

OEC Fiber is moving from its existing GPON technology to a newer generation called XGS-PON.

The name sounds technical. Think of the difference as moving from a garden hose to a fire hose.

“The hose itself is the same, the fiber’s the same,” Trenton said. “We’re not changing anything there. But the amount of data, the amount of fluid we can push down the hose is the difference.”

XGS-PON can carry more data over the same fiber, creating capacity for growing demand and opening the door to faster service for members and subscribers.

The fiber already stretching across OEC Fiber’s network will remain in place. Teams are upgrading the electronics that send information across it.

Making the change, however, requires crews to rebuild key parts of the network while the existing system remains in service.

Building a network on top of a network

Before crews touch a fiber connection, the team maps the work.

The project began on the west side of OEC Fiber’s system and has moved east. At each hut, crews audit existing equipment, determine the location’s needs and stage new equipment before installation.

Teams build cut sheets showing where connections need to go, print labels and use color coding to help crews identify individual fibers. They assemble the materials for each location so installers have exactly what they need when they arrive.

A bin of equipment may not look remarkable from the outside, but they represent hours of work.

OEC Fiber first refined the process at its Lamar and Bailey huts, using lessons from those locations to improve equipment placement, organization and procedures before moving on. But unlike the original network build, crews now work around thousands of active subscribers.

“What we’ve essentially done is built our whole network again and laid it on top of our existing network,” Trenton said. “Because of that overlay, we now have to be sure when we plug everything together, we haven’t introduced a problem for a subscriber.”

If crews were building an empty network, they could install and test equipment throughout the workday. Instead, they handle non-service-affecting work during the day and return for overnight cutovers between midnight and 6 a.m. when a change could interrupt service.

“Everything’s just another level of being methodical about it,” Trenton said. “Everything’s proactive, everything’s thought out.”

For members and subscribers who have received an OEC Fiber maintenance notification, those overnight hours are when some of the project’s most precise work happens.

One connection at a time

Before a cutover, crews install new equipment alongside the existing system. A component called a coexistence element allows the old and new technologies to operate over the same fiber during the transition.

Then the connections begin to move.

At larger huts, crews may spend four to five hours working through the process. They pull fiber jumpers, clean and inspect connections, reconnect them in their assigned locations and test the light traveling through the fiber.

The work demands precision. Fiber consists of glass, so dirt, damage or an incorrect connection can interfere with the signal.

“The process is to make sure we’re providing consistent service, so when the member gets up in the morning, everything’s working for them,” Michael said.

Crews check the network throughout the process. If a subscriber experiences a service issue after a cutover, teams can trace the signal through the new components, identify the source and correct it.

Much of the planning beforehand exists to make those overnight hours as controlled and predictable as possible.

It takes a cooperative

The racks and fiber inside a hut offer the clearest picture of the physical upgrade, but completing it requires teams across OEC and OEC Fiber.

Network Operations plans the migration and manages the network. Fiber personnel prepare and install equipment. Crews work through overnight cutovers. Logistics helps keep materials moving. Technical teams learn the new platform and troubleshoot it. Member and Subscriber Services prepare to help the people who use the network. Vendors and professional service teams contribute specialized work along the way.

As the project moves from research to installation to eventual subscriber transitions, each group picks up a different part of the process. The shared effort reflects the cooperative model behind the network itself.

OEC Fiber grew from OEC’s mission to improve members’ quality of life, and its network has always depended on people across the organization working toward a common purpose.

“Everybody has had a piece of this success, and we’re so thankful,” David said.

Making room for Multi-Gig

As crews move through the remaining huts, rows of new electronics and thousands of carefully mapped connections are becoming one upgraded network.

The work is creating the capacity for OEC Fiber’s next step: Multi-Gig internet.

OEC Fiber is preparing to introduce Multi-Gig plans with speeds faster than 1 Gig. For members and subscribers, those faster speeds will be the most tangible result of months of research, planning, installation and overnight cutovers happening largely behind the scenes.

Plans and timing are still being finalized, but Multi-Gig is coming soon. To learn more and sign up for updates, visit OECFiber.com/multigig.

The new system also gives OEC Fiber room to meet changing internet needs in the years ahead, just as OEC has done with critical infrastructure throughout its history.

For now, the work continues one hut and one connection at a time.