Connect Ohio Mapping Helps County Provider Expand

JB-Nets began providing Internet service to southeastern Ohio in 2002. The small organization has about 600 customers and has experienced a rapid growth spurt in the last 8 months. The company’s owner, Jacob Kline, attributes the growth to new upgrades, word-of-mouth marketing, and Connect Ohio’s online mapping tools.

The company is in the middle of an expansion project, bringing wireless Internet availability to southern areas of Gallia County that were previously without access. In order to expand, JB-Nets has been building its own towers, ranging from 130- to 180-feet in height. Building its own infrastructure allows for strategic placement of its broadband signal, reaching the most households it possibly can per tower.

JB-Nets is also upgrading its current coverage areas to offer customers faster Internet speeds.

“It’s a never-ending challenge for a provider – to keep up with the growing demand,” said Kline.

Kline has seen an overall increase in Netflix use, blue ray players, and televisions with Internet capabilities built-in – even appliances are now connected to the Internet. All of which require faster Internet speeds and additional bandwidth to work to their fullest potential.

“We’ll have at least 85%, possibly even 90%, of our customers up to 5 Megabits per second by late fall of this year,” said Kline. “We already have 40% of our customer base upgraded to the higher speeds.”

Before JB-Nets’ upgrades, the average Internet speed for customers was 1-2 Megabits per second.

“It’s helped that people can pinpoint by their address on Connect Ohio’s website and see that we’re the provider in their area,” said Kline. “We don’t do a lot of advertising, so that tool, word-of-mouth, and expansion efforts have helped us continue to grow our customer base.”

For more information on JB-Nets, visit http://www.jbnets.net/.