Independent communications holding company SureWest Communications (search for SureWest) says it has completed its most recent expansion of the company's fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network, passing 1,500 homes in the Kansas City communities of Merriam and Olathe. The company adds that it is aggressively implementing a new sales and marketing campaign to these areas which is showing early signs of significant customer demand for services offered over the network.

SureWest plans to reach another 1,500 fiber homes in Merriam and Olathe by November 2008 and 8,000 total by the end of the year. The company is also expanding its FTTH network into the community of Prairie Village by the end of 2008 or early 2009.

"This is an exciting time for the company and customers in our Kansas City market," said Ken Johnson, SureWest's vice president and general manager of operations in Kansas. "Residents from these three neighboring communities where we were previously unable to serve have been asking us for years when we were coming to their neighborhoods. Now, not only are we beginning to offer service to their neighborhoods, we are delivering the most advanced and superior network in the country.

"We just had a successful commencement to our launch when one of our sales reps knocked on seven doors and sold six new households our SureWest fiber services. And during one of our first installations, four of the surrounding neighbors saw our SureWest service vehicle and chased down our technician to ask if they could be installed as well," Johnson said.

SureWest's FTTH platform delivers 100 Mbits/sec of bi-directional bandwidth to each customer's home. SureWest asserts it provides the only residential service in the United States that delivers 50 Mbits/sec of Internet speed both uploading and downloading, and in 2007 added its first 50-Mbit/sec customer.