In 2018, the state of Missouri was ranked 42nd in the nation in broadband connectivity. More than 1 million Missourians, or about 20% of the state population, do not have access to high-speed Internet.
Lack of access to high-speed internet hinders rural communities in many ways. Businesses are at a disadvantage when competing in a global information economy. Small businesses have more difficulty buying and selling products online. Growing companies are often forced to move to other places where top-tier connectivity is guaranteed, taking jobs and investments out of the area. Students are unable to access a wide array of online learning, collaboration, and resources. And healthcare providers lack medical applications that require higher speeds and capacity, such as telemedicine, healthcare analytics, and robot-assisted surgery.
Connectivity is crucial to the success of rural communities, and Netrality strongly supports improving rural broadband accessibility. That’s why we are very excited that CharitonValley, northeast Missouri’s premier communications company, has selected two of Netrality’s facilities to further broaden their broadband service to rural communities. Establishing points-of-presence (PoPs) at 1102 Grand in Kansas City and 900 Walnut in St. Louis will significantly advance Chariton Valley’s mission of providing premier communication services to rural areas, helping these underserved communities in a number of ways.
By establishing a presence at Netrality’s 1102 Grand and 900 Walnut facilities, Chariton Valley is now able to access Netrality’s interconnected ecosystem of network and service providers. As Chariton Valley continues to seek opportunities to enable their customers with access to the content they want and need, while reducing costs for delivering those services, their newly established PoPs to Netrality will ensure Chariton Valley can provide the highest quality services to rural Missouri at an affordable rate.
“We are excited to be partnering with Netrality and to grow our network and enhance the online experience for our rural communities,” said Chariton Valley’s CEO Kirby Underberg. “We are in it for the long haul, we are dedicated to providing quality services and we look forward to continued growth in Missouri,” concluded Underberg.
Netrality offers the most connected data centers at the network core and has been a strong ecosystem partner through its network-neutral colocation, partnering, not competing, for success with service and cloud providers, CDNs, MSPs, and enterprise customers. To learn more about how Netrality’s colocation edge data centers provide lower latency, higher reliability and robust security, visit www.netrality.com.
