One small but growing Nebraska provider said
companies must overcome major hurdles before
they can offer high-speed service in rural areas.
The first is a lack of workers who are trained
to install and maintain service, said Madeline
Baltzer, director of operations for Geneva
Broadband, which serves Geneva and parts of
rural central Nebraska.
The shortage makes it more difficult to respond
to requests from customers who are unhappy
with the service they’re getting from other
companies. Baltzer said she has fielded calls
from other providers’ customers who complain
about not having service for up to three weeks
at a time.
“There’s only so much we can do,” Baltzer said.
“Our growth isn’t necessarily limited by how many
customers we can serve. It’s limited by staffing.”
Newer companies also must spend hundreds
of thousands or even millions of dollars on the
equipment required to provide service. Larger,
more established companies usually put their
resources into bigger and more competitive
markets in Lincoln and Omaha.
“No one really wants to borrow or spend that
much money for a few hundred households,”
Baltzer said.
Baltzer’s father and the company’s owner, Greg
Baltzer, said his business grew out of necessity
because his original startup software company
didn’t have the high-speed internet he needed,
and the city’s main provider at the time didn’t
have plans to upgrade its offerings.
“At that point, I didn’t have a lot of options,”
he said.