AT&T customers living near Bear Valley may soon have the ability to tap into a line of newly hung high-level fiber-optic internet cables. That’s courtesy of a modernization effort by the Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that is wrapping up a replacement of its internet services this month. Part of a national project by NOAA to update its scientific agencies’ internet systems, the installation of the cable will improve bandwidth, speed and security for Cordell Bank’s office, located near Point Reyes National Seashore headquarters. Michael Carver, deputy superintendent for Cordell Bank, said the project has been in the works for a year and that he and his staff are anxious to tap into the robust connection. “On my desk right now is a four-terabyte hard drive that I have to physically mail offsite to a data custodian on the East Coast,” he said. “We can’t successfully [transfer large data files] with the internet we have now. To have a 21st-century system… is going to be awesome.” The cost of the upgrade was roughly $20,000, he said, and its benefits include reducing the agency’s carbon footprint by allowing for more meetings to be conducted online. Drivers on Bear Valley Road in recent months may have noticed the yellow rope and wires used to install the high-capacity cable lines that will now connect downtown Point Reyes Station to Cordell Bank headquarters. A spokesman for AT&T said individual customers can learn how they might connect to the system by contacting the telecommunication conglomerate’s customer care team. As for the offices of Point Reyes National Seashore staffers, spokesman John Dell’Osso said the park has already received approval from the regional office to tap into the cables, but is awaiting approval from the national office. He said the connection would send data 10 times faster than the park’s current system.