Co-Mo Connect coming to city of California

The Co-Mo Connect fiber-to-the-home communications network is coming to the city of California.

The network, which provides blazing-fast Internet, crystal-clear telephone and reliable television service, is a product of Co-Mo Comm, the communications subsidiary of Co-Mo Electric Cooperative.

The agreement with the city of California paved the way for Co-Mo Comm to begin the first extension of Co-Mo Connect beyond the electric cooperative's members.

"We're excited about the opportunity to extend Co-Mo Connect into the city of California and bring those economic-development opportunities and quality-of-life improvements here to the business and residential communities," said Randy Klindt, general manager for Co-Mo Comm.

The move into California was made possible because the city owns its own electric utility. This helped pave the way for negotiations for Co-Mo Comm to hang fiber on the city's electric poles.

City of California residents interested in Co-Mo Connect can go to Co-Mo.net and click on the special link at the bottom of the homepage. Through that link, residents can express their interest in the various services Co-Mo Connect offers.

Co-Mo Comm contractors will be in California soon to remove the lines from a defunct cable company. In the place of those lines will be placed Co-Mo Connect fiber, which will carry some of the fastest Internet speeds in the country. Packages start at 5 megabits per second and range up to 100 mbps and beyond. Special business pricing is available.

Beyond Internet, Co-Mo Connect also offers unlimited local and long-distance residential telephone service. Co-Mo Comm also is rolling out Co-Mo Connect TV.

"There are some really great features unique in this area to Co-Mo Connect TV," Klindt said. "The biggest of those is Restart TV."

With Restart TV, subscribers can go to the beginning of programs on select channels, regardless of whether they were turned to that station or forgot to set their DVR.

"So if you want to watch a big game and you get home with two minutes to go, you can just click a button and go back to the beginning," Klindt said.

Co-Mo Connect also has some of the best prices in the area, with a simple bundling discount of $15 a month for those choosing two services and $35 a month for those choosing all three. Details can be found at Co-Mo.net or by calling (800) 781-0157.

Co-Mo Comm President Ken Johnson said that the California project won't slow down the four-phase expansion of Co-Mo Connect to all areas served by the electric cooperative.

"The key thing is for all our members to know we are hiring additional crews to do this, not taking crews away from the work on building out Phase 1. There will be no delay because of this in getting Co-Mo Connect to our members," he said.

Phase 1 began in May and is expected to take about a year to complete. Each successive phase is expected to take a similar amount of time. Subscribers can follow along with the project at Facebook.com/comoconnect.