(KAIR)--Installation of fiber-based internet continues in Atchison, as Rainbow Communications continues its focus on the City’s downtown district.

According to a release from the Everest-based telecommunications company, crews, for the past few months, “have been busy installing services for the businesses and residents” in what the company calls “the Downtown East fiberhood.”

According to the release, issued earlier this month, “construction is still progressing for the remaining areas of phase one, which include the Downtown West fiberhood,” with that step in the overall installation process set to begin soon.

The release notes that crews “have also been busy preparing the details for the fiberhoods in [the] phase two construction areas.”

According to the release, the next construction phase will be announced early next year.

The Rainbow Fiber Expansion Project began in the spring of this year.

According to Rainbow, phase one of the fiber expansion means a $3 million investment and the laying and attaching of more than 75-miles of fiber-optic cable, consisting of a new route to Amberwell Health, as well as routes to Benedictine College, the Amelia Earhart Airport, and Atchison’s downtown business district. Rainbow Communications has been expanding into the Atchison area, from its Brown County headquarters, for several years, including a private-public partnership with the City and County of Atchison that resulted in the 2018 expansion of the fiber-optic network to the Shannon Industrial Park. In 2019, the Atchison Amelia Earhart Foundation sought the company’s help in expanding fiber internet to Atchison’s Amelia Earhart Airport, as part of the Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum project, as well as what the company at the time called an improvement to “the airport’s operational efficiency."