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Rob McClendon: Well, for three generations now Hillary Communications has been providing
cable and phone service to small communities in southwestern Oklahoma. So they jumped at
the chance to partner with USDA Rural Development to help merge more small communities onto
the broadband superhighway. Rob: The town of Cooperton often gets passed
right on by these days. Outside the occasional Saturday night dance, not much of a reason
to stop. Except for the grand opening of a new community center residents here hope can
better connect them via the Internet. Leigh Ann Ballou: I'm really excited. We've
never had been reliable service. We've all occasionally been able to find somebody that
would try to give us a signal and try, you know, but it's never been reliable.
Rob: Leigh Ann Ballou says on these windswept plains, even getting a cell signal can be
a bit of a challenge. But thanks to a USDA Rural Development grant, residents here can
now get online with Internet speeds that rival anywhere in the U.S. Ryan McMullen is the
state director of USDA Rural Development. Ryan McMullen: Oh, these, these communities
are absolutely important, and a lot of folks is, someone drives down State Highway 54,
they see Cooperton, and they see a ghost town. They see a town that's lost population for
the last 80 years. But in reality there's still families that have been farming this
land for the last hundred years and are clinging onto the land. And, you know, deserve to have
a similar quality of life as folks that live in the metropolitan areas.
Rob: Yet when it comes to Internet service -- true broadband isn't available for much
of rural America. According to the Rural Broadcast Policy Group, a many as 100 million country-dwelling
Americans suffer through download speeds of about three megabytes per second, more of
a horse-and-buggy pace than an Internet superhighway -- which is where Hillary Communications comes
in. Eddie Hillary: This is our switch room for
our central office. Rob: A spider's web of fiber optic cables
that Eddie Hillary says links rural areas of southwestern Oklahoma with the latest TV
and Internet service. Eddie: We offer fiber to home services throughout
our service area. We offer speeds 50 and a 100 meg speeds.
Rob: Which rivals anything you find in an urban area.
Eddie: We also are going into the business park in Elgin and our customers in the Meers
area and offering gigabit services. Rob: Which is as good as it gets here in the
U.S. and a vast improvement for the small towns that dot their service area, improvements
Dustin Hillary says couldn't have been made without the federal help.
Dustin Hillary: Well, USDA is just a vital role and a good partner with because without
this grant we couldn't have this or even ventured very far out of our area, you know, that we've
been building for the last 40 years. I mean, it's just vital that they're either here with
these grants or we've got low interest loans from 'em, long term loans. Really, we just
couldn't do it without 'em. Rob: And providing cutting edge Internet service
to the small towns in this area is no small feat. First there is the distance, then there
is the topography. Covered in boulders the size of cars, the Wichita Mountains can be
a formidable foe. Still, Doug Hillary says the work they do helps their friends and neighbors
in ways many never realize. Doug Hillary: The rural water is on our systems
that they control the pumps back and forth in this addition, through the office and knowing
what's going on. The telephones we handle through the USDA, the Internet we handle through
the USDA, the cablevision that's in their home, over-the-top video. The fire departments,
whenever the fire departments get a call from a 911 or from an ambulance, we know who lives
in this house that's there, we know their age, we know everything about 'em so whenever
they're dispatched they know what's going on whenever they arrive here already because
it's already printed off through the fire station that we're, that we're supplying broadband
Internet to. Rob: Making these overhead lines a true connection
to a more sustainable rural Oklahoma. Rob: Now, if you would like to see firsthand
just how important high-speed Internet service is for rural Oklahoma, just head to our website
at okhorizon.com, where I visit with a social networking guru and small town resident, Becky
McCray, about why online commerce could be the savior of our small communities.
Becky McCray: The tools that are available to us online right now represent an unparalleled
opportunity for small towns.�Because the people of small towns grow up with the right
set of skills, with the right friendliness, with the right way of treating people as individuals
and relating to people one-on-one.�Taking all of those skills and going online, we're
able as small-town people to have a huge advantage over people that don't have that same set
of skills that comes from their background and their upbringing.�Because of that advantage,
we have a natural opportunity for small towns to make a wonderful economic benefit out of
the online tools that we have right now. Our businesses can benefit, our local institutions
can benefit, our organizations, our people can network and learn things from all over
the world; these tools represent an unparalleled opportunity.
Rob: To see more of my conversation with social networking expert Becky McCray just head to
okhorizon.com and look for her under our value added section.