Melissa Miller is business editor at The Southeast Missourian. A graduate of the University of Missouri Journalism School, she's worked as a reporter, photographer, editor and as the executive director of two not-for-profit organizations. After living in Michigan and then Indiana, she moved back to her hometown of Jackson, Mo. In addition to writing daily stories for The Southeast Missourian, Melissa coordinates editorial content each month for Business Today. Business Today is a monthly publication for southeast Missouri's business community. Monthly themes include health care, agriculture, women in business, technology and more. Business Today is direct mailed to business owner and managers throughout southeast Missouri and southern Illinois. Follow her updates on local business developments at www.twitter.com/semissourianbiz or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MelissaMillerSoutheastMissourian

Cape Company Gets $24 Million for Internet Project

Posted Wednesday, August 4, 2010, at 3:14 PM

A plan by Big River Telephone Co. to provide wireless broadband internet access to Southeast Missouri will receive $24.3 million in federal stimulus funds.

Gov. Jay Nixon will join management at Big River Telephone Co. in Cape Girardeau at 2:15 p.m. Thursday at the company's office on Minnesota Street to discuss the project that will serve Washington, St. Francois, Ste. Genevieve, Madison, Perry, Bollinger and Cape Girardeau counties.

"This is about investing to create opportunities and revenue so we can grow, as opposed to cutting jobs," Kevin Cantwell, Big River president.

About 75 new jobs will be added at Big River, which is also putting $4.3 million of its own resources toward the broadband project, he said.

He estimates project would create 1,300 jobs, most of which would be related to construction. Others as a result of more businesses having high-speed Internet access, according to the company's grant application.

Look for more online soon at http://www.semissourian.com/business and in Thursday's Southeast Missourian.

Also, click here to read previous stories about the project: http://www.semissourian.com/story/1645265.html

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So what does this do differently than what Charter, and AT&T(?) already offer? Does it simply eliminate the wiring to the buildings?

I ask only because I'm not very educated on this subject.

-- Posted by gomer on Wed, Aug 4, 2010, at 3:47 PM
gomer- I may be wrong, but I think Big River is attempting to expand high-speed internet to the more rural areas.

It's ridiculous that third world countries can have high-speed internet, but people "in the sticks" can't.

-- Posted by crackpot on Wed, Aug 4, 2010, at 4:54 PM
That's kind of my question crackpot - I live 'in the sticks' (not in any city limits) and I have Charter cable and Charter internet. I have the 10 megs package with a wireless router. The satellite companies offer broadband internet now too don't they?

So what exactly is different about what they are doing? You can get broadband from Dish or Direct TV even if you can't get Charter can't you?

And again, I only ask because I'm just not very educated on this topic, it is nothing against Big River or anythign like that.

-- Posted by gomer on Wed, Aug 4, 2010, at 5:49 PM
Thanks Melissa.

Nil, while I pretend to know what latency means, that brings me to another question: Dish is advertising 5 megs for their broadband service, yet you claim it is not very good for an average user. How do we know if the broadband from Big River will be any better? What reasons would cause the satellite companies broadband to have poor connections? Will Big River's be any different?

And what speed will be offered through this deal? There's a pretty big difference (imo) between 5 mbps and 10 mbps. I switched from 8 to 16 in the past year or so and it's way better (I thought I was on a 10 mbps plan earlier tonite). I like it so much I'm ready to give Charter's new 25 mbps a try.

I'd be interested in this but only if it is along the lines of 15 mbps or higher.

-- Posted by gomer on Thu, Aug 5, 2010, at 1:09 AM
Satellite is not as good a choice mainly because the signal has to travel to a satellite and back. It's traveling very quickly, but it's still going to space and back which takes some time. Big River's wireless will be served from towers similar to cellular towers -- much closer to the user which makes web browsing a much "snappier" experience.

Also, to ensure decent speeds and availability for all customers, there are often pretty strict limits on how much you can download during a certain time period with satellite.

You may live in the sticks and have Charter as an option, but there are still large portions of Southeast Missouri where the local cable provider hasn't built out their network and isn't likely to due to cost/population density. Big River will likely be targeting those areas.

Additionally, we can hope the competition will force Charter to lower prices and improve customer service. So, it might not be right for you, but you could still benefit from the competition and there are a great many people using dial-up in rural areas who will welcome this service.

-- Posted by Polisher on Thu, Aug 5, 2010, at 9:33 AM
Gomer - satellite is available in almost all rural areas - and mobile broadband is available in some rural areas -- but the cost is usually considerably more than traditional DSL service (usually $ 60 to $ 80 a month for the low end of service).

Download speeds are usually decent -- however -- uploads speeds are usually horrible. These providers usually put a cap on the amount of data that can be transmitted each month as well. If you go over the cap -- you pay a huge per MB fee.

Especially with satellite (because of the delay) -- there are some services that you pretty much can't use -- such as VOIP (services like MagicJack, Vonage, and other voice over internet services that people on DSL can.) People wanting to work from home often can't log in to their work's VPN or computer network because of the delay either. People wanting to rent online movies, etc. -- can't because of the data cap.

Satellite service is definitely better than dial up -- however -- it doesn't work for a lot of people's needs. For the typical family -- the cost makes it unaffordable as well. As someone living in a rural area -- I would love to have affordable high speed internet. I still have a land line (because my cell reception is spotty at times in the house) -- but I would drop it in a heartbeat if I could get high speed internet and use a phone service such as Vonage.

-- Posted by ShowMeGuy on Thu, Aug 5, 2010, at 1:21 PM
Thanks for the replies Polisher and ShowMeGuy, those were very helpful.

And thanks Melissa (and thanks Big River) for getting an answer to an earlier question.

-- Posted by gomer on Thu, Aug 5, 2010, at 4:26 PM

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