Rural internet service in Northern Oklahoma will be more accessible, reliable and affordable as a new company, Nextlink Internet, comes to the Enid area. The public is welcome to attend a groundbreaking ceremony at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, October 23, at 5111 Enterprise Blvd., located in the Garfield County Industrial Park.

Nextlink Internet, based in Hudson Oaks, Texas, is a provider of high-speed internet and voice services to residential, business, institutional and government customers in mostly rural and small-town areas using a mix of fixed wireless and fiber-optic network technologies. Currently, the company’s service area includes parts of north-central Texas and southern Oklahoma, but the company is expanding to more areas in northern Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and Illinois.

The company’s new facility in Enid will help provide 25-30 new jobs.

“We are excited to welcome Nextlink to Enid!” said Lisa Powell, Executive Director of the Enid Regional Development Alliance (ERDA). “Being able to provide high-quality internet service to rural Northwest Oklahoma is valuable to the economic growth of the area.”

“All of us at Nextlink Internet are excited about the opportunity to begin serving customers in the Enid area,” said company CEO Bill Baker. “While high costs and low- density populations have been a barrier to providing broadband service in rural areas in the past, we use fixed-wireless technology, which can be built and upgraded faster at a fraction of the cost of networks based on DSL, fiber, cable, or satellites. Add in our expertise in serving rural and small-town areas, and it means good news for businesses and families in northern Oklahoma.”

Since its founding in 2012, Nextlink has attracted more than 36,000 broadband subscribers using solely private capital to invest in its networks. In 2018, Nextlink won a competitive bid for $281 million in support over 10 years from the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Connect America Fund (CAF), which will help the company deploy broadband services to more than 100,000 under-served homes and businesses across six states.

For more information on the groundbreaking, contact the Enid Regional Development Alliance at 580-233-4232. To learn more about Nextlink and career opportunities, visit www.nextlinkinternet.com.

Story provided by Enid Buzz

Posted by: Chris Tucker