Big River Communications is knocking on doors across the greater St. Louis area to further the adoption of future-proof networks. President Kevin Cantwell joined the Fiber Broadband Association’s Fiber for Breakfast to share how Big River is helping its community embark on the road to fiber.
Circle Fiber, a division of Big River Communications, will be deploying fiber to the premise in its service territory to approximately 250,000 locations across St. Louis, Poplar Bluff and Sikeston, Missouri.
Big River started 20 years ago and offered dial up service. Since then, Cantwell said, service offerings grew to DSL and 4G LTE spectrum with a fixed wireless telephone product.
“While that product did what it was supposed to do at the time we deployed it, it’s not what we need as we go forward,” Cantwell noted. “We understand the need of fiber to deliver the broadband needs of consumers as we go forward.”
Poplar Bluff is the county seat, making it the regional center for healthcare, education, retail, industrial and government.
“The large customer base in that territory understands the need for higher speeds and the lack of service in those areas, and so we’re stepping forward to give our customers what they expect,” Cantwell said.
Nicknamed the “Gateway to the Ozarks,” Poplar Bluff is growing rapidly.
“Turning it into a gigabit city will just make it better so that they can attract even more companies into their territory,” he continued. “If there is anything positive that has happened as a result of COVID, it is the drive for a faster adoption of technology. That fast adoption forced users to realize they need a platform to drive this new way of doing business.”
Two major indicators of this shift that Cantwell mentioned are remote learning and telemedicine.
“When you look at rural America, one of the biggest things right now is the lack of doctors and a lack of facilities. People have to drive to what we call the ‘NFL cities’ if they need major operations or need something looked at by a specialist,” he said. “But with fiber broadband and telemedicine, you can push equipment out remotely, all the way down to the household where you can monitor and test patients on a daily basis.”
Without fiber broadband technology, Cantwell said, that’s not possible.
“We have long-term relationships with our service communities. They understand that this is the future, that this is the next infrastructure build in their community,” he said. “They have sewer, they have water, they have light. Now, they’re having broadband infrastructure built into their communities.”
Big River is also working with the Poplar Bluff Housing Authority to develop a plan that will deliver broadband to disadvantaged households for free.
“Fiber is not just about getting internet anymore,” Cantwell argued. “This is about economic development. This is about education. This is about putting our children on par with other, not just local or state communities, but worldwide communities.”
Cantwell said when Big River is deploying fiber in a new community, field technicians go door to door offering to run that fiber line to that home for $25.
“We stress heavily in these communities that when we have construction crews on your street, we’re going to knock on your door and say, ‘For $25 we’ll run fiber to the side of your house,’” he said, adding that he knows that customer might not end up buying service from Big River even after that installation, but “that’s fine.” That’s because his priority is expressing the importance of fiber.
“On average, a house with fiber has a value 3.1% higher than the typical house without,” he cited. “I tell people that return on investment is better than a bay window.”
And if that customer does decide to sign on as a Circle Fiber customer, Big River credits them back the $25 link fee.
“By getting into these communities and educating these people by telling then what we’re doing, why we’re doing it and what the benefits are, it helps our adoption rate and it helps us do what we need to do,” he said. “And, obviously, the cities are very excited for us to deliver this next generation network that not even some ‘NFL cities’ have yet.”
