Indian Electric Cooperative is marching ahead to meet its goal of providing high-speed Internet to all of its members. 

Through a lease agreement with Cox Communications, IEC provides the infrastructure and fiber backbone, and Cox provides service from the pole to the home. 

IEC says it has completed construction on 211 miles of line and passed 3,475 homes.

Areas already with fiber in the air and available for members to sign up to receive Cox fiber include IEC members in Fairfax, Red Rock and Burbank, plus those east of Mannford in Creek and Tulsa County. 

“Currently, we are focusing on grant-funded areas,” IEC’s VP of Engineering Jeff Pollard said. “We are finishing up all the awarded areas in Osage County, which will be complete by the end of the first quarter and then we’ll be rolling into two other ARPA-funded projects.”

IEC was awarded $17 million for specific underserved areas through the Oklahoma Broadband Office last year and is designated from Oklahoma Legislature-approved American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds. The cooperative also is pursuing other funding opportunities to offset construction costs to the cooperative. 

IEC’s next construction zones include the Cleveland area, west and south.
Jamie Garrison, who is VP of Operations for IEC, says his construction crews are expected to have passed 5,824 members by the end of 2025, an area that encompasses 807 miles. Those members then will be able to call Cox to set up installation to their homes.

“We have some extremely underserved and unserved areas when it comes to broadband,” IEC CEO Todd Schroeder said. “To see that we have members now with options they didn’t have before is what a cooperative is all about. Our main mission is to serve the member and make their lives better.”