With underground utility work scheduled to start next week, Wardsville residents are expected to have access to a new fiber-optic network for internet service by the end of the year.
Callabyte Technology, a subsidiary of Callaway Electric Cooperative, approached Wardsville village leaders about bringing its service to the community last month. Tom Howard, Callaway Electric chief executive officer and general manager, said they will be able to provide internet, television and phone service to the community.
“We had been looking at coming to Wardsville because we had done research and found that they were lacking in high-speed broadband service,” Howard said. “We’ll be offering three tiers of internet service: 100 megabytes, 500 megabytes, and a gig or 1,000 megabytes.”
“The Board of Aldermen has been hearing from several people in the community who say they are not getting good internet service,” said attorney David Bandre, who is the legal counsel for the Village of Wardsville.
“With the COVID pandemic, more people are having to work from home and need faster service,” Bandre said. “Other providers have only provided fiber-optic service but just to a limited area in and around the community.”
Callabyte is already offering this service to several communities in its service area such as Fulton, Hermann, Holts Summit and New Bloomfield, Howard said.
“It works well during storms and is reliable,” Howard said. “We offer unlimited data usage as well. The average customer with a 500-megabyte package would pay $80 a month for unlimited data.”
For phone service, Howard said, the average customer would pay $39.95 a month with free local long distance. Callabyte’s TV package can average as low as $50-$60 a month or as high as $200 depending on the service a customer wants.
“Wardsville does not receive tax off internet service,” Bandre said. “Federal law prohibits this. However, we do get tax from the phone and TV service that Callabyte would provide.
“We don’t have an exclusive provider for internet service, so in exchange for a non-exclusive franchise agreement, the Board of Aldermen authorized Callabyte to come in,” Bandre continued. “Cities can do exclusive franchise agreements for services such as trash service, and Wardsville has that. We have non-exclusive agreements with a number of telephone providers. Any other company that would want to come and offer a similar service as Callabyte, we could talk with them and could cut a similar deal.”
Crews from Sellenriek Construction Inc. out of Jonesburg will be doing the construction work for Callabyte, Bandre said.
“We want to let people know why they’ll be seeing people doing digging in yards, and the company has agreed to fix any damage that may occur during the installation,” Bandre said.
For more information about what Callabyte offers, visit callabyte.com.
Callabyte plans to hold in-person signup events in Wardsville in the near future, Howard said.
Three Rivers Electric Cooperative provides electrical power to parts of the Wardsville area. Roger Kloeppel, Three Rivers chief executive officer, said Callaway Electric officials reached out to them about their plans for Wardsville.
“We will work with them and support them as much as we can,” Kloeppel said. “Three Rivers does not have a subsidiary like Callabyte, and we’re not sure if we will have one. Our board hasn’t seen a business plan yet that makes sense for us. It’s a huge investment, and only a handful of the 40 cooperatives in the state are offering this type of service. We hope this will be good for the Wardsville area.”