New Internet Projects
Joink (March 2012) Joink's new tower at Darwin in Clark County is
complete. Type "Darwin, IL" into the coverage map link to see if coverage
might affect your area. You may need to zoom out a little as well. Click
here for a link to the coverage map. http://www2.joink.com/coverage/
Wildblue/Excede (Early 2012) Excede is now being offered as a
faster satellite broadband experience. A new satellite was launched and is
now live. http://exede.com
Metro Communications Company (March 2012 Update)
Metro Commucations is in the process of a build and is leaving hook ups for Chrisman, Shiloh, Villa Grove, Heritage, Tolono-Unity, Westville, Cumberland, Casey, and Marshall schools.
Metro Communications Company In July 2011, Metro Communications began construction on 400 miles of new middle – mile network to enable high speed Internet connectivity and advanced wholesale services to cellular providers and other enterprise users in East Central Illinois. Through connectivity to the ICN (Illinois Century Network) we will work to serve Educational and Government institutions inside our 20+ county network footprint. A combination of dark fiber agreements with multiple providers and new construction will expand the network reach to Springfield, Decatur, Champaign, Danville and the US-40/US-36/IL-1/IL-130 and IL-121 corridors as well as POPs in Chicago and St. Louis. The directly affected communities are Chrisman, Georgetown, Ridge Farm, Westville, Ogden, Hume, Metcalf, Newman, Homer, Broadlands, Villa Grove, Philo, Sidney, Tolono. Click here for a link to a map of the build.
Frontier (January 2012) Frontier plans to provide Ste Marie in Jasper County with DSL sometime during the first quarter of 2012.
NewWave Communications (December 2011) During the fourth quarter of 2011, NewWave Communications began offering City of Newton residents a triple play package of high-speed Internet, phone, and TV.
Joink (November 2011) Joink is adding new service in and around Darwin, IL in Clark County. They are taking sign-ups now and will have service live soon. Type "Darwin, IL" into the coverage map link to see if coverage might affect your area. You may need to zoom out a little as well. Click here for a link to the coverage map.
Frontier (September 2011) In July 2010, Frontier added customers in many new Illinois areas as part of a 14-state transaction with another company. Prior to this, many of these customers in Illinois could purchase only voice services for residences and traditional data services for businesses. Since the transaction, Frontier is investing over $50 million to bring high-speed Internet (HSI) to more towns across Illinois. The company is well along in its three-year plan to extend broadband services to at least 85% of all the homes and businesses served in Frontier’s newest markets. As a result of Frontier’s on-going investments, 82 new Illinois communities – representing a 25% increase in broadband capability in Illinois -- now have in-home and in-business broadband access from Frontier for the very first time: Albers, Alexander, Allendale, Arrowsmith, Astoria, Auburn, Bethany, Burnt Prairie, Bushnell, Casey, Cerro Gordo, Chapin, Chatham, Cisco,Compton, Cropsey, Dalton City, Deland, Divermon, Dongola, Dover, Earlville, East Lynn, Elkville, Elliott, Ellis Grove, Ellsworth, Elwin, Fayetteville, Franklin, Garden Prairie, Gerard, Golgonda, Greenup, Hammond, Hecker, Highland, Homer, Ireland Grove, Kansas, Karnak, Lamoille, Laomi, LaPlace, Leland, Macomb, Macon, Mansfield, Mascoutah, Melvin, Milstadt, Mt. Zion, Neoga, New Baden, New Berlin, Newman, Okawville, Paw Paw, Pawnee, Pleasant Plains, Potomac, Prairie City, Redmond, Sandwich, Sheridan, Sherman, Sibley, Somonauk, Steward, Sullivan, Summerfield, Thompsonville, Toledo, Ullin, Vermillion, Vermont, Villa Ridge, Virden, Waverly, West Union, Westfield, Williamsville. Customers can call the conversation center at 1-877-462-8188, or they can sign up online at frontier.com
Wabash Telephone Cooperative (August 2011) http://www.wabashtelephone.coop/Wabash Telephone Cooperative has been notified it will receive an Infrastructure Loan Award of approximately $21.8 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Utility Service to expand rural broadband internet access. The Cooperative was one of 18 recipients chosen to receive a low interest loan to provide broadband services to unserved and underserved rural communities.
Based in Louisville, Ill., Wabash Telephone Cooperative supports 4,512 access lines for a wide variety of video, internet and land line services. The cooperative’s board decided to invest in fiber optic-based broadband in 2009 in order to stay current with the entertainment and information needs of their subscribers. The loan will help the cooperative keep their costs lower and may make it possible to speed up the process of connecting all their customers to the fiber optic network. The expansion will give interested subscribers broadband access with much greater speeds. They plan to install 777 miles of fiber-optic cable, with a goal to complete the project within five to seven years. “The real value of extra bandwidth is that it lets us do entirely new things with computers, cameras and televisions on our network.
The growth of content, applications and various other products will place greater demands and the use of fiber will soon be a necessity,” says Jeff Williams, General Manager/Executive Vice President at Wabash. “Fiber is what’s going to let small-town residents have more say over what services they want, giving them choices of the latest services and technology. Fiber to the home is actually doing a lot to keep Wabash Telephone what it’s always been about. Wabash Telephone is strong and on the leading edge.” For Images of WTC's fiber project:
http://www.icl.coop/archive/10_10/feature.php Wabash Telephone Cooperative serves subscribers in portions of 8 counties including Clay, Edwards, Effingham, Jasper, Marion, Richland, Wabash and
Wayne Counties. For more information visit
www.wabashtelephone.coop.
(August 2011 NEWS RELEASE FROM: Jeffery Williams, General Manager/Executive Vice President, Wabash Telephone Cooperative, Inc.) 
Frontier (July 2011) http://www.frontier.com
Now offering High Speed Internet (up to 7Mb) in the following towns: Casey, Greenup, Toledo, Neoga, Kansas, Westfield. They are using ADSL2+ technology that will initially allow them to reach approximately 4Mi into the rural areas. They will add extended reach capability in the near future to reach 5Mi+. Customers can call the conversation center at 1-877-462-8188, or they can sign up online at frontier.com
A large fiber build will affect numerous counties within our region. Community institutions AND for-profit business will be allowed to access the line. Several community organizations will be connected, but the funding is not unlimited, so all will not initially get connected. The build is considered a "middle mile" so one challenge will be to get to the connection via a "last mile."
A new satellite is to be launched in the near future to increase speed for Wildblue.
Cellular One will be adding towers and equipment to existing towers in order to provide more coverage to the region.
Recovery Act funds and company funds are being used to complete a fiber build which will affect counties in the southernmost part of our region.
