Agreement Will Provide Broadband Access to 1200+ Households in Southern Ohio

A recent lease agreement between JB Nets and Gallia County officials for the use of three county-owned towers will provide high-speed Internet access to more than a thousand homes in rural parts of the county.

JB Nets presented a broadband expansion business plan, which included Google Earth mapping of propagation studies and a business case analysis template designed by Connect Ohio, to Gallia County officials just over a week ago. According to Jake Kline, owner of JB Nets, the plan includes high-speed Internet coverage to 80% of the county within the next three years and the creation of at least two, but possibly three, full-time jobs.

“These three initial towers should be able to expand (Internet coverage) to 450-500 households,” said Kline. “However, our proposal also included 30 additional secondary towers to fill in gaps. We estimate approximately 1,200-1,400 total additional households that could receive service from us with all 33 towers constructed.”

Gallia County officials accepted the proposal and have signed lease agreements with JB Nets for the use of the three 911 communications towers, located in Gallipolis Township, Harrison Township, and Ohio Township.

“It is exciting to see community leaders cooperating with a local broadband provider to offer high-speed Internet to residents who otherwise would be left behind,” said Bart Winegar, technical outreach manager for Connect Ohio.

“The information Connect Ohio provided us was very useful in putting together our business plan/proposal,” said Kline.

According to Connect Ohio’s 2011 Residential Technology Assessment for Gallia County, only 42% of households receive broadband service to the home, significantly less than the state average of 66%.

Other Gallia County technology figures:

• Sixty-seven percent of Gallia County residents own a computer, which is less than the state average of 80% 
• Of the 33% of residents who do not own a computer, 71% claim they do not need a computer, 21% say computers are too complicated, and 20% say computers are too expensive 
• Seventy-five percent of residents access the Internet from home or some other location 
• The average monthly cost for home broadband service in Gallia County is $50.83, above the state average of $43.41 

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

Additional Gallia County technology research can be found at http://connectohio.org/_documents/Technology_Assessment_Gallia_County_2011.pdf.

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/.