White River Connect CEO gives fiber internet timeline for residents here

Beau Jackson, CEO of White River Connect, visited the Gainesville Lions Club last week to give an update on when Ozark County residents can expect availability of fiber internet locally. 

White River Connect is a subsidiary of White River Valley Electric Cooperative, the electric cooperative that services the majority of Ozark County with the exception of an eastern portion of the county that is serviced instead by Howell Oregon Electric Cooperative. 

White River connect is currently in the process of bringing high-speed fiber internet capability to every household in its service area, which includes Ozark, Taney, Stone, Christian and Douglas Counties. The service will also be extended to some areas that are not serviced by WRVEC but are nearby.

Jackson says that Ozark County residents are on track for being able to sign up for service in mid-January 2025. 

He said that the project began in 2021 with a feasibility study, and White River Connect began construction on its fiber internet lines in June 2023. “So we’ve only been into this for 16 months, and we’ve already built over 2,000 miles of fiber. We already have 1,400 customers, adding about 70 per week as we go on. We’re trying to ramp that up,” he said. 

Originally the company made plans to begin at its headquarters in eastern Taney County and run the fiber line through Taneyville, Cedar Creek, Protem, Theodosia and Gainesville as its first phase of the project. Jackson said that plan changed when the company was notified by the National Forest Service that it could potentially take 270 days for the correct permits to be approved that would allow the company to run the fiber lines in that direction, as it crosses a large swath of national forest in the process. 

“So, we were at a point where we had to make a decision. We ended up switching the phase one and phase two lists of areas...” he said, explaining the project instead began by going the opposite direction toward Branson. “At this point, we’ve got through that first phase that we switched over, and now we’re getting to what we planned in the beginning as the first phase - which is from [WRVEC headquarters] out to Gainesville.”

Jackson said that the fiber lines are currently built to sustain the service throughout Ozark County. White River Connect Manager of Network Operations Jeremy Lampe and his team are working to get the rest of the infrastructure in place to support the service. 

“What we’re going to do is... light up this whole ring that goes all along the Highway 160 corridor - from here all the way to Taneyville, so we will be able to light up these areas from Gainesville to Taneyville all at once,” Jackson said. “...On first of January we are scheduled to get it lit up, test it, configure and get ready to start drops. So about mid-January, maybe Jan. 20, that is when we can start building drops. We can start taking orders before then. You will probably see us open up for sign ups before the end of the year, and then once we process those and start the drops, it’ll be mid-January or late January when we start the installs.”

Jackson says that the internet service and speeds will be as good as anything else out there, which he says will be a huge improvement for Ozark County residents.

“A lot of our membership is going to go from pretty much nothing to basically the absolute best. It’ll be comparable to anything you can find in Springfield or any other population center that has fast speeds. 

“It is symmetrical speed, so the download speed is as fast as the upload speed. Our infrastructure in our network and setup is able to deliver that. None of the other providers can. Their upload speed is a small percentage of the download speed. Why is that significant? It will be because of how we’re going to use internet in the future,” Jackson said. “You think about your handheld device and all your pictures and videos you have on it - or on your desktop computer... you want to back those up in case something happens to your phone or if the hard drive of your computer crashes. You don’t want to lose all your precious memories. That’s a lot of data that has to transfer to the cloud.”

He said that White River Connect is offering up to 1 gig of download/upload speed for residential customers in three package options that vary from $75 to $105 a month. There are also business packages that range from $130 a month to $505 a month for very large companies.  

Jackson said that White River Connect will be a full service technology company, and it will offer other products besides just fiber internet. “There’s a product that we’re looking at that’s called Smart Town. It’s where we can deploy a network mesh connectivity throughout a town, and what that looks like for the customer is that if you are a subscriber [of White River Connect internet] at home, you can go into town and connect to that network and have access just like you have in that home at no cost to you,” he said. “We also can provide a service within that connectivity for festivals, for ballgames and things like that. This goes back to what our principals are as a cooperative. We’re not here to just sell the internet and speed. It’s an experience. That’s what we focus on, how it’s going to change your lives, especially in rural areas.”

He said the company has also launched residential and business phone services. In addition, they are working on the “Bark App,” which will allow parents to set parental controls on a specific devices used by children. Other products are also in the works.

“The beautiful thing about cooperatives is that we answer to you, not investors. We are concerned about the welfare of the community and not maximizing profits. We have to have profit to stay in business, let’s be clear, but that’s not the focus. It’s about giving the rural areas a chance, breaching that divide and keeping up with society. That’s what we’re doing,” he said. 

The total White River Connect fiber internet project is estimated to cost $260 million. It is funded through local, state and federal grants. The company is also working with banking partners to ensure it has adequate funding for the build out process. There was $9.3 million from local commissioners including $200,000 that was committed by the Ozark County commissioners. 

To find out more, visit whiteriverconnect.com, visit the company’s Facebook page or call 855-304-5393.