Centranet recently won top honors in the Stillwater News Press “Best of Stillwater” contest. Every year, readers of the Stillwater News Press and followers of the newspaper’s social media profiles, websites and e-mail blasts celebrate the best businesses, organizations and people in a two-step process.
In June, they cast their nominations in the contest, revealing the top five nominees in each category. In July, voters select their top pick from each category, hoping their favorite will rise to the top. On July 29, the newspaper announced Centranet as the first place winner in the internet service provider category.
“We are excited that Centranet was chosen for this award,” said Mark Prather, President of Fiber and Technology of Central Rural Electric Cooperative and its fiber subsidiary, Centranet. “From the beginning, we’ve made subscriber satisfaction a pillar of all we do. We’re delighted the community recognizes this and chose Centranet as their provider of choice.”
Located in Stillwater, Okla., Centranet is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Central Rural Electric Cooperative that aims to bring members the fastest, most reliable internet through its fully fiber network.
Co-op leaders are pictured with Governor Kevin Stitt
Today, cooperative leaders participated in the ceremonial bill signing of HB-1965 along with Governor Kevin Stitt, Representative Carl Newton State Representative and Kirk Martin, Deputy Director of the Oklahoma Broadband Office. The bill encourages the development of broadband services in unserved and underserved areas, ultimately helping Oklahoma bridge the digital divide. Ten distribution electric cooperatives have fiber subsidiaries and are bringing critical access to reliable broadband to unserved and underserved areas in rural Oklahoma.
Infinera (NASDAQ: INFN) announced today that KAMO Electric Cooperative, Inc. (KAMO Power) is deploying Infinera’s XTM Series on its 2,700-route-mile rural network to serve its 17 member cooperatives across northeast Oklahoma and southwest Missouri. The deployment upgrades KAMO Power’s network, providing the cooperative with an open optical network that delivers high-capacity, reliable, and secure transport services.
KAMO Power is a Generation and Transmission (G&T) cooperative and one of the largest of its kind, providing its members safe, cost-effective, and reliable power through its high-voltage transmission network and communications system. In addition to serving the region as the largest power source, KAMO Power’s cooperative members rely on its robust open optical network to meet the needs of utilities, local government agencies, internet service providers, and local telecom companies.
With Infinera’s XTM Series, KAMO Power can offer its members cost-effective, scalable 100G transport services to meet their bandwidth needs today and into the future. The KAMO Power XTM Series deployment flexibly supports both legacy services and modern Ethernet-based services over a 100G-enabled flexible-grid ROADM-based network. Leveraging an open optical architecture, KAMO Power can seamlessly scale its network to support 400G transmission speeds and beyond to meet future capacity needs while also supporting third-party wavelengths if required. The deployment also utilizes the disaggregated architecture of the XTM Series to provide a highly flexible yet compact network design with low power consumption, keeping both CapEx and OpEx low throughout the lifespan of KAMO Power’s network.
Infinera worked closely with partner BlueAlly to design and deploy KAMO Power’s network upgrade.
“As Infinera’s channel partner in this KAMO Power deployment, BlueAlly complements the Infinera XTM Series solution with additional IP solutions and an extensive service offering covering all aspects of the network,” said Maria Will, SVP, Telecom and Broadband at BlueAlly. “With initial network design expertise and a combination of pre-staging, installation, and commissioning services, BlueAlly is able to quickly and seamlessly bring KAMO Power an outstanding rural broadband network with minimal impact to their existing network operations.”
“Infinera’s XTM Series is ideal for rural broadband networks, delivering reliable and cost-effective network connectivity that can scale to meet demand, which is critical for cooperatives like KAMO Power,” said Nick Walden, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales, Infinera. “With Infinera’s XTM solution, KAMO Power can offer a wider range of capacity and provide new services to its cooperative members.”
Indian Electric Cooperative announces the signing of a fiber deal with Cox Communications
In a move to narrow the gap when it comes to broadband access in rural Oklahoma, Indian Electric Cooperative has announced fiber cooperative effort with industry giant Cox Communications.
The innovative approach will accelerate broadband access to unserved and underserved areas of rural Oklahoma, IEC says.
The IEC Board of Directors and Cox Communications executives approved the terms this month.
“Cox is committed to the communities it serves, has local presence, and it is a leader in broadband,” IEC Chief Executive Officer Todd Schroeder said. “While we felt confident in IEC’s ability to provide its own service, it makes a lot more sense to combine the strengths of the co-op in building infrastructure, and the strengths of Cox in providing broadband service to the home. This type of cooperative effort may be unprecedented, but it is the best decision for our membership.”
The agreement means the IEC-built fiber infrastructure, the poles and fiber, remain a co-op asset, which Cox Communications will lease and provide broadband service to IEC members. Co-op leaders explored several other local opportunities, but ultimately chose to enter an agreement with Cox.
The core mission of IEC is to improve the quality of life for its members across seven Oklahoma counties. The agreement with Cox is for a three-year buildout to all 14,000-plus of IEC’s members, with the timeline contingent on material supply availability.
“Our main concerns were ‘how fast can we provide this necessity to all of our members and how can we do it in the most financially responsible way?’” Schroeder said. “By leasing our fiber to Cox Communications, we check both of those boxes.”
Reminiscent of how the cooperative began with providing electricity to rural farmers in 1939, it is once again necessity that drives the mission.
“It is similar, just a more modern approach,” Schroeder said. “This move will change the lives of people who have been, simply because of their zip code, shut out for decades when it comes to technology advancements. They now will have a bridge to options.”
The cooperative effort with Cox allows IEC to be a gateway to more opportunity for the member. IEC’s previous plan to build fiber lines independently through its subsidiary InTech Connect would have offered high-speed Internet connections only. However, in using the IEC infrastructure, Cox Communications also will be able to provide more resources in addition to Internet, like TV, plus seasoned technical support experts.
The values of Cox Communications are line with values of the co-op, IEC said. Cox CEO Alex Taylor, who heads the company today, is the great-grandson of the original founder, James M. Cox. It is the largest private broadband provider in the U.S., serving 7 million homes in 18 states.
“Communities have trusted Cox since our founding in 1898, and we are honored that IEC has put their trust in us to deliver powerful high-speed Internet to its members,” said Roger Ramseyer, Market Vice President, Cox Communications. “This cooperative effort ensures rural communities through the seven-county region have the critical access needed to take advantage of online, work, learning and healthcare and increases their opportunity for economic gain.”
In 2021, IEC announced its priority in building a fiber pilot project in the small town of Fairfax, which is underserved. Construction is in progress there. Since a tornado ripped through the small town in 2018, IEC has provided free Wi-Fi along the main business district of Fairfax. Outside of that, residents don’t have reliable options.
With the signing of official documents, IEC and Cox confirm their commitment to ensure service in Fairfax remains the first priority. Additional new service zones will be announced by Cox as they approach construction. IEC members can go to cox.com/getfiber to sign up for updates on fiber access. Additionally, cox.com/bundles has the information on services and the affordable prices Cox offers in its Tulsa market.
IEC still is pursuing multiple avenues to receive state and/or federal infrastructure funding intended for rural broadband expansion projects to offset investment costs to members.
Central Rural Electric Cooperative’s fiber construction project has entered its final phase and projects the build to be complete by August 2024. Once complete, Central’s entire membership, nearly 18,000 Oklahoman households, will have access to high-speed fiber internet.
“Our mission is to connect people with the speed of light, and we are working as fast as we can to do that,” said Mark Prather, Central’s President of Fiber and Technology.
Central’s board approved the expansion of fiber communications throughout its seven-county service area in August 2020 with the goal of optimizing the grid while also closing the digital divide. One of the benefits of a full fiber build is the capability of fiber internet services being offered to the home.
Centranet LLC, Central’s wholly-owned subsidiary, opened its first feeders in July 2021, making fiber available to 10% of Central’s membership. Just two years later, Centranet has more than 7,200 subscribers and is available to 83% of Central’s membership.
“We are committed to providing every member access to high-speed fiber internet at a low cost,” Prather said. “When we started construction in October 2020, we did so with the mindset of building as quickly as possible. What began as a five-year project will be finished in three.”
Despite the rapid pace, Centranet has maintained the cooperative’s member-centric philosophy by providing transparent pricing and value-added services for free. Every Centranet subscriber has home network security protection on top of their managed Wi-Fi offerings. Subscribers can manage their Wi-Fi, set parental controls and protect their home network from intrusions – services some companies offer for a fee.
“Our motive is different from other internet service providers,” Prather said. “We aren’t in this to make a big profit. That is why we don’t offer introductory pricing, hidden fees or contracts. We want to do our part to help change the way people live in rural Oklahoma. We want to help people connect to one another.”
This transparency is something subscribers approve as apparent by Centranet’s Net Promoter Score, which is currently a 90. The average Net Promoter Score for internet service providers, which is based on how likely a subscriber is to recommend the service to another person, is 30. “We strive to provide the best experience possible for our subscribers,” Prather said. “We genuinely care for our subscribers, and I think they can feel that difference. We can’t wait for Central’s entire membership to have the opportunity to experience it too.”
Lake Region employees celebrated the milestone at a celebration lunch
CBC Member, Lake Region Technology & Communications, recently celebrated a significant milestone. June 16 marked the completion of a major undertaking, building a fiber network from the ground up to all areas of Lake Region Electric Cooperative’s service territory. All Lake Region members now have access to blazing-fast gigabit internet service.
Lake Region has constructed over 3,000 miles of fiber optic, connecting more than 11,000 homes and businesses in areas that had no access or were underserved—building broadband internet where no one else would! Thank you to the board of trustees and management for their vision to provide an essential service.
Thank you to all the employees for their hard work throughout the years of construction. Thank you to all our partnerships, communities, and contractors who have helped make this project successful. Lake Region is proud of our fiber optic network and looks forward to being this area’s most reliable, fastest internet provider for many years.
Brandon Benham manually lashing the fiber, with Chris Patrick in the bucket and Tanner Jones and Josh Ciaramita on the ground as they work on hanging mainline fiber across I-40.
Fiber cooperatives strive to set the gold standard in the broadband industry by serving our membership through providing high-speed, reliable internet access in our rural areas.
Our focus is to have best in class customer service by answering our phones locally and responding quickly with our local team of technicians. We are here for the long game, not to increase subscriber count and then sell to the next company. Cooperatives have been serving their members for 80 years. Our goal is to be here doing what we do for at least another 80 years!
Like many cooperatives, Canadian Valley Electric knew they had to fulfill the need for high-speed internet that had been forgotten in rural Oklahoma communities. To meet that need, CVEC Fiber was created to serve its membership and went the extra mile to ensure its underserved rural communities have faster internet access than the majority of the big cities. The multi-gig network that CVEC Fiber offers is some of the fastest internet in the nation.
By going the extra mile, CVEC Fiber has been able to provide over 6,000 subscribers with reliable internet so that families can have movie nights without buffering and businesses can provide timely transactions to their customers.
“We know that our members are patiently waiting for us to get our fiber built to them. In the past 2 years, we have built half of the 4,000 miles of fiber needed to get access to 100% of the membership. It has been a huge undertaking, but very rewarding when members tell us how life changing it is once they get it,” Sheila Allgood, general manager of CVEC Fiber, said.
Dependable internet is no longer a luxury; it’s a necessity for many individuals. CVEC Fiber, alongside other broadband cooperatives, is proud to play a part in improving the quality of life in our communities. Because who else is going to go the extra mile?
Danny Wann is a third-generation cattle rancher residing on family land that spans 1,500 acres at Sugarloaf Mountain’s base on Monroe, Oklahoma’s outskirts. Danny and his family, which includes his wife, four children, his brother, sister-in-law, and their children, collectively help manage approximately 500 registered Angus “mama cows.”
The Wann family runs a “seed stock” operation, producing Angus bulls for commercial breeders and Angus heifers for commercial and registered breeders.
In 2003 the Wann family started hosting an online auction for their stock, a direct and efficient method of selling a large number of cattle each year to interested buyers across the country.
“We don’t even run them through a ring,” Danny explained. “We have them pinned, and people buy them off the video. It’s safer for my family and quicker for the buyer.”
The Wann family had the cattle, the facility, and the workers—all they needed was quality internet.
Unfortunately, the latter proved challenging to find.
Although the Wann family’s internet service was “fine” for a while, they started experiencing issues. As they attempted to live stream the auction, the service crashed, which was detrimental to the success of their business.
The unreliability of their internet service left the Wann family frustrated and concerned for the future success of their yearly auction.
Thankfully, in 2021, a friend shared the good news of Wave Rural Connect coming to eastern Oklahoma residents who were also Arkansas Valley Electric Cooperative Corporation members.
“It sounded too good to be true, and it couldn’t get here fast enough,” Danny shared. “We got WAVE here in time for our sale that year, and it has been awesome ever since.”
He continued, “It’s helped us have more of an internet presence with a good and updated website, and personally, our kids can work on their homework assignments.”
Danny’s wife, Liz, a speech pathologist at a local school, also uses WAVE to communicate with students’ parents via video chat and work in the comfort of her home throughout the summer.
“It has just continually made things easier, better, and more advanced and allowed us to get more done,” said Danny.
The Wann family recently hosted their annual sale for 2023 and described Wave Rural Connect’s service as “awesome” and was happy to report that it “held up well during the entirety of the sale.”
100,000 connected households. 250,000 Oklahomans. Wow. This is cause for celebration!
Thank you, Oklahoma lawmakers, for your support of connecting rural Oklahomans to the vital service of reliable broadband. This connectivity enhances quality of life and provides opportunities for younger generations to flourish and thrive at home.
Last week, the Cooperative Broadband Coalition celebrated the milestone of connecting 100,000 households that were previously unserved or underserved. The support received from the Oklahoma Legislature is genuinely appreciated.
Cooperatives were created to serve the underserved. That is why we exist. More than 80 years ago, electric cooperatives were formed to light up rural America with electricity. Standing on this legacy, we are powering connections with fiber optic service and bringing reliable broadband – coupled with unparalleled service – to rural Oklahoma.
Let the celebration continue… the cooperative way! While this year we connected 100,000 households, representing 250,000 Oklahomans, we hope to connect 300,000 households and 750,000 Oklahomans in the near future.
With cooperation, we are powering rural Oklahoma, one connection at a time.
Rural broadband is a game changer, and rural electric cooperatives know that too well. The Cooperative Broadband Coalition (CBC) unites 10 distribution electric cooperatives with fiber subsidiaries in the state of Oklahoma. Collectively, these cooperatives have reached the milestone of connecting 100,000-plus subscribers in rural areas, a significant investment in the quality of life for rural Oklahomans and the statewide economy.
“The cooperative business model is uniquely suited to provide this essential service,” says Hunter Robinson, Chair of the CBC and CEO of Central Rural Electric Cooperative based in Stillwater, Okla. “More than 80 years ago, co-ops brought electricity to areas that were left in dark. We stand on a legacy of bringing service to the unserved and underserved; it’s in our DNA. Co-ops will be here for the next 80-plus years to come, serving Oklahomans with the best possible service.”
Co-op broadband customers have access to the latest and most advanced technology, enjoying the benefits of fiber broadband with at least 1 gigabyte symmetrical speed and consistently high customer satisfaction rates.
Co-op fiber subsidiaries are experiencing adoption rates as high as 52%, far exceeding industry averages.These subsidiaries are bringing reliable, high-speed internet not only to residences across rural Oklahoma but to county offices, city offices, small businesses, farming operations, health organizations, public schools and educational institutions.
“Everyone [in education] – teachers, staff, and students – is dependent on quality internet access and devices. Education would look very different without it,” says Ryan Swank, Assistant Superintendent for Westville Public Schools. “Our school district has been doing business with BOLT [subsidiary of Northeast Oklahoma Electric Cooperative] for many years. They have always been there if we need anything at our school. I would give them the highest recommendation.”
Customers receiving high-speed internet from CBC members enjoy exceptional quality of service. The care and attention to detail is inherent of the cooperative difference, which makes the electric cooperative business model stand out. With this legacy, co-op fiber subsidiaries are committed to speed, service and support, going places where others don’t go. They have gone the extra mile to provide electricity, and they’re going the extra mile again to provide fiber broadband service, currently connecting over 2,000 subscribers a month.
“Providing rural broadband is an extension of the cooperatives’ mission to work toward quality-of-life improvements in rural areas of the state,” says Chris Meyers, General Manager of the Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives. “Rural communities deserve the same opportunity as their urban neighbors, and broadband is a key component of bridging the digital divide.”
With this milestone, co-ops remain committed to expanding their network, improving services and making broadband more accessible to customers across the state.
