Nearly a quarter of the way into the twenty-first century, fast reliable internet is as readily available in the developed world as electricity.
Not your experience? Once again, rural America doesn’t pencil out. Each of the different types of internet requires the providing company to invest in infrastructure that will give them the path to get the technology to your home. Electricity does as well, but that battle was fought in a different political climate and economic model. The Rural Electrification Act of 1936 provided federal loans for the installation of electrical distribution systems to serve isolated rural areas of the U.S. The extreme trauma of the Great Depression changed the conservative climate of power supply in America and made way for the public to support a government program that would provide electricity to rural areas.
There is very little competition for the rural market. Companies that do provide service can get away with charging more and delivering less. After all, what are you going to do about it?
There was less inequity between rural and city connections when the internet was first delivered on the existing telephone system with “dial-up” and subsequently DSL. But it didn’t take long for soft and hardware data requirements and quickly developing technology to leave dial-up behind. Even DSL is inadequate to the way internet has become integral in our work and home lives today.
It is true. Rural customers don’t have many options.
Dial-up doesn’t meet contemporary needs. DSL isn’t offered everywhere and even if available, it might not be adequate. It is also offered by telecommunication carriers, such as AT&T, which will tie you and your internet service to its ever-changing marketing strategies and cost structure. You are doomed to be an account number—one of millions of customers. You are usually bound by contract so that the company can quickly recoup their minimal investment in you as a customer and move on to signing up new customers. Satellite requires extensive technology at the customer end. It is expensive, not always reliable, and not available everywhere.
There is very little competition for the rural market. Companies that do provide service can get away with charging more and delivering less. After all, what are you going to do?
Critical Links is a bit of a throwback to the best of yesterday. A time when doctors made house calls and the butcher saved the best roast if he knew your mother-in-law was visiting. Critical Links is an internet company that models the very values that make a rural lifestyle the one you want to live. It’s not just a faceless company. Critical Links’ founders, father and son, Dale and Jonathan—and a maybe a small team as we grow a bit—are the company. The primary goal in building this company was to solve your problem with internet availability and service.
It’s homegrown, but not a DIY project in any sense of the word. Critical Links technology is state-of- the-art, next-gen technology. It is a Direct Wireless Internet connection between the Critical Links servers and your home.
The main server is located in Monett, MO so the distance the signal travels isn’t even as far as Kansas City, much less via Paris. It is a “line-of-sight” signal, much like an FM radio signal. The signal is affected by geology in much the same way radio signals are affected. Dale is a co-founder of the company and the primary designer and installer of your individual connection between the plant and your house. This guy is your 5-star Uber driver.
It is important to note that it’s not a matter of getting you to sign on the dotted line, switching a button somewhere, and moving on to the next customer assuming all works as the website ad promised. If you’d like to consider becoming part of this “solution” to abysmal internet service in rural SW MO, give Critical Links a call and give Dale the opportunity to see if he can “see” your house, theoretically speaking.
