RidgeviewTel Adds Broadband Customers in Rural Illinois

Although rural America is ready and waiting for broadband, not many providers are keen to offer their services in these areas, according to reports.

 

But residents of Omaha in southern Illinois opted for RidgeviewTel broadband services and today, the community serves as a major source of inspiration for other rural communities looking to get a broadband service.

 

With a lack of a sustainable customer base and proper infrastructure, many mainstream broadband service providers do not set up their services in the rural parts of America. Although the deployment of broadband lines in recent years has grown reasonably comprehensive, the use of such services in the rural areas remains lower.

 

Companies such as RidgeviewTel are trying to change that picture. RidgeviewTel offered broadband to Omaha in 2007 and mapped, built out a network and had customers online within six months. Apart from adding more customers and serving more than half of the town’s households, the network also provides broadband to fire department and municipal employees at $29.95 per month.

 

“We are committed to making the rhetoric of the day a reality and doing the most with the least for rural communities,” says Vince Jordan, RidgeviewTel’s chief executive officer. “We’ve invested in developing a proprietary software platform complete with mapping and characterization functionality, single-point network monitoring and customer provisioning. Keeping those functions together is a big asset to rural communities needing every ounce of efficiency in their system.”

 

RidgeviewTel’s solution for Omaha includes front-office, back-office and network operations and maintenance. Since 2004, the company has deployed 54 networks for communities like Omaha.

 

The company recently launched the “We Need Broadband” Web site recently for residents and businesses in rural America to demonstrate their demand for broadband Internet to the federal government. They can use this Website campaign to let the service providers know their demand for a broadband access. The web furnish the requests by visitors will be added to information from others to help define the network needs of their area.