Wheatland Broadband

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Bringing Broadband to Rural Kansas

Wheatland Broadband was formed in 2001 to offer internet services to the true last mile in rural western Kansas. At a time when larger telecommunications companies had seemingly left rural residents and communities behind. With the lack of high-speed internet service to our area, Wheatland Electric and its Board of Directors decided to do with internet much like it did in 1948 with electricity which was to bring internet to the underserved areas of rural Kansas.

According to the 2018 Broadband Progress Report produced by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), more than 24 million Americans lack broadband wireless access at the benchmark speed of 25 megabits per second (Mbps) for downloads and 3 Mbps for uploads. Approximately 97.9 percent of Americans residing in urban areas have access to fixed terrestrial broadband, while only 69.3 percent of rural Americans have this quality of access.

This nearly 30 percent discrepancy is a compelling reason why the Statewide Broadband Expansion Task Force, chaired by Kansas Electric Cooperative, Inc.’s Doug Shepherd, was created and is motivated to expand broadband coverage to rural Kansans. Bruce Mueller, Wheatland’s General Manager, recently presented to the Broadband Task Force on Rural Broadband Needs, Barriers and Solutions.

Currently, we have more than 3,150 members that are spread over approximately 5,000 square miles. Looking ahead Wheatland Broadband has plans to lease dark fiber which is fiber that is currently not in use. This fiber will increase bandwidth to critical network sites in our subscriber network.

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