The promotion of Noble REMC’s recent broadband internet survey was hard to miss. 

We sent a letter with each member’s bill, wrote about it here in this magazine and linked to it directly on our website, our mobile SmartHub app and social media.

We didn’t want to miss any opportunities to hear from as many of our members as possible on your wants and needs regarding your current internet services, as well as what you’d like to see if new options were available.

Though the window has now closed to participate, I wanted to take the time to thank each and every member who took the time to provide feedback.

Our co-op is constantly listening to our community to learn new ways in which we might be able to help it thrive. Recently, we’ve recognized your interest — from phone calls to being approached in person — as to whether Noble REMC is going to provide much-needed high-speed internet to our service territory.

Inadequate internet services can adversely affect our members’ quality of life by hampering your opportunities for telework and education, obstructing area economic development and failing to offer service options at a fair cost.

Electric cooperatives are no strangers to being the go-to resource when it comes to helping our communities. It’s the standard we set when we were created more than 80 years ago to provide electricity to rural areas that larger utilities wouldn’t invest in.

The recent broadband survey, which was conducted in partnership with TWN Communications, was the very first step in determining what the needs of our community are and whether Noble REMC should further conduct research into potentially providing high-speed internet to our members.

This won’t be a quick process, and the decision to potentially invest millions of dollars into such a project won’t be taken or made lightly.

We will spend the next few months analyzing the feedback provided in the surveys to determine what our next step in the process is, whether that means continuing on with a feasibility study or deciding to go in another direction.

Once again, we appreciate your participation in this process and your patience as we make decisions the right way — with you, our members, in the forefront of our minds.