The City of Oberlin is just one hour off Interstate Highway 70 (I-70) in Western Kansas. Located in Decatur County, it has a population of over 1,500 residents and hosts a decent-sized agribusiness, retail, and energy economy.
Long before many of the federal and state programs to support digital adoption and inclusion, long before digital equipment giveaways became mainstream, long before the nationwide effort to bridge the digital divide, Nex-Tech has been committed to all of these in our service footprint.
The month of April is National Safe Digging Month (NSDM). Governor Laura Kelly issued a proclamation marking the month and calling Kansans to call 811 before starting any outdoor digging project.
Grow Hays, the economic development vehicle of Ellis County Kansas, recently opened a MicroFactory in the city of Hays. Nex-Tech will be providing free Internet services to the facility. The occasion brought together dozens of community members and many stakeholders to celebrate.
Technical education is perhaps one of the shortest routes to meeting the workforce needs of rural communities.
I was recently at the Legislative Coffee organized by the Hays Chamber of Commerce, where I engaged with state legislators representing the Hays area.
We recently connected all towns within our cooperative footprint to fiber technology. Indeed, we have come a long way since 1996 when we deployed the first fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network in Hill City (KS) becoming the first in the nation to do so. Today, we currently serve scores of communities with FTTH spread over 6,000 square miles – that’s about half the size of the nation of Belgium!
Recently, I attended two national engagements: the Economic Leadership Conference in Phoenix, AZ; and the NTCA Rural Telecom Industry Meeting & EXPO (RTIME) in Tampa, FL. Both engagements revealed new insights into the nexus between rural broadband and rural economic development.
Our team was at the Legislative Day of the Kansas Economic Developers Alliance (KEDA) held at the Kansas Legislature in Topeka recently. This is the second engagement we have had in Topeka this year (recall the CCK engagement last week).
Earlier this week, the Nex-Tech team engaged the Kansas State Governor, Laura Kelly, and several state legislators at the Kansas State Capitol in Topeka, KS. The team was part of the annual capitol delegation of rural broadband providers across Kansas under the Communications Coalition of Kansas (CCK) umbrella.