There's a new name on top of the leaderboard of areas with the fastest Internet service in the state of Missouri.
Co-Mo Connect has pulled the category of "Tipton" into first place, as ranked by Ookla Speedtest, the global leader in broadband speed testing. The average of 88.86 megabits per second for those who have run speed tests on the network encompasses all subscribers on the Co-Mo Connect network because their service originates from the company's Tipton headquarters.
Rounding out the top 5 after the Tipton category are Grandview, Kansas City, Saint Ann and O'Fallon.
In addition, Co-Mo Connect is ranked 18th in the United State of fastest Internet service providers with at least 100 speed tests run from its subscribers.
"Our little piece of rural America is 18th fastest in the entire nation," said Randy Klindt, general manager for Co-Mo Connect. "Just stop and think about that for a second."
These results come as Co-Mo wraps up installations for subscribers on Phase 1 of its four-phase project to make the fiber-to-the-home network available throughout the entire service territory.
The first phase encompassed more than half of Co-Mo Electric Cooperative's members. With the launch of Phase 1, which came on the heels of a successful pilot project to test Co-Mo Connect's business plan, was the start of Co-Mo Connect TV.
"We've grown a lot and learned a lot as Phase 1 has proceeded," Klindt said. "Running a TV business alongside the Internet and phone business we started with the pilot projects has made Co-Mo Connect much more attractive to our potential subscribers. They're now getting everything - Internet, TV, phone and electricity - all on just one bill."
Phase 1 also saw the expansion of Co-Mo Connect beyond the cooperative's service territory, first to the city of California and now to the cities of Versailles and Tipton.
"What we're trying to prevent from happening is the reverse of what happened when investor-owned electricity providers came through in the early 1900s and cherry-picked the profitable cities and left the rural areas without electricity," said Ken Johnson, Co-Mo Connect's president the CEO/general of Co-Mo Electric Cooperative. "We didn't want to see all the outlying areas with this amazing communications network but have holes in the middle with the cities that got left behind."
The city projects also are providing an additional revenue stream that wasn't expected when the business plan was developed. That revenue comes with comparably less expense because of the larger number of potential subscribers per mile of fiber.
"That revenue is going to make the entire project more likely to succeed, all the way to the very end of Co-Mo Electric's lines where there are very few potential subscribers per mile," Klindt said.
So far, the reviews of Co-Mo Connect have been overwhelmingly positive.
"I love that I am saving money, first of all, and then really loving that we don't lose our signal, whether it be the TV or the Internet, when it rains," said subscriber Diana Davis.
Added Peggy Liebi: "I love it. I've never had HD or a DVR before. I didn't lose signal during the really bad storms, not even once."
For more information on Co-Mo Connect and to see when it will be available in your area, visit Co-Mo.net.