Cookson Hills Connect recently reached a milestone in its commitment to bring high-speed fiber internet and phone services to rural households and businesses in eastern Oklahoma. With the recent completion of a fiber construction project that began in 2021, all 14,738 Cookson Hills Electric Cooperative members now have access to fiber from Cookson Hills Connect. Over 6,000 services have been placed in less than three years, and that number continues to grow each day.
What was only a dream for so many is now a welcome reality for members like Janice Williams, Executive Director of the Haskell County Chamber of Commerce. “I have seen the benefit from the economic development perspective and as an individual member of Cookson Hills Electric. One of the first questions that business site selection companies ask is if our industrial park has high-speed internet, and I am happy to tell them yes.”, says Williams. “I not only benefited from it at work, but I was equally excited to learn that it would be available at my home, too. I now can upload large files and communicate after normal business hours from my home with government officials, chamber members, and site selectors looking for places to begin a business, and this was not an option before getting service from Cookson Hills Connect.”
With millions of dollars invested in the project, an estimated 33,000 people who make up the member households at Cookson Hills Electric will benefit from this venture. “We knew it would be a challenging yet rewarding experience, but watching it happen and hearing all of the positive feedback from our members has been even more incredible than I could have imagined.”, says Juli Orme, CEO of Cookson Hills Connect. “We extend our heartfelt gratitude to each member for their patience and support in this endeavor.”
Electric cooperatives continue holding dear to their cooperative principles as they expand into building world-class infrastructures across the state of Oklahoma. The type of materials, technology, and equipment might differ from that used by cooperatives some 80 years ago, but the commitment to serve people remains unchanged. After all, it’s about our people.