Public Ribbon Cutting and Reception September 22, 2011 at 11 a.m.
PONCA CITY, Okla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- @Link Services, LLC will cut the ribbon for their new public @Link Cyber Community Center on the Kildare School Campus – near Ponca City, Okla. – this Thursday, Sept. 22nd at 11 a.m. Residents near the area are welcome to attend. The newly built @Link Cyber Community Center will offer free high-speed Internet service, 10 computer stations and proctors to help new users of the world wide web. The cyber community center building is located next door to the Kildare Elementary School, 1265 Church Street, Ponca City, Okla. 74604.
“We are thrilled that Kildare was chosen as a grant recipient and will benefit from the availability of free computer workstations and high speed internet access.” .The new @Link Cyber Community Center is the result of a Community Connect grant from USDA Rural Utilities Service Telecommunications Program for which @Link Services, LLC was chosen to create and manage the center and provide high speed internet to Kildare, Okla. In addition to the new computers and broadband Internet connections, visitors will have access to printers and a trained staff of employees ready to assist novice or first time users in the use of the computers. Additionally, @Link Services will provide free, weekly computer training available to the public. @Link Services will begin offering fixed wireless internet services to homes and businesses in the area including free WiFi service to Kildare School and the Kildare Volunteer Fire Department.
@Link Services, LLC, branded @Link WiFi, is based in Oklahoma City and was selected from more than 300 applicants by the USDA to receive a Community Connect Grant for Kildare, Okla. @Link Services is an Oklahoma-based internet service provider that focuses on providing high speed internet service in unserved and underserved areas throughout rural Oklahoma. The Community Center is one of several community centers in Oklahoma benefiting from the USDA Community Connect Grant Program. @Link Services has built an additional community center with the aid of the USDA on the New Lima Public Schools campus in Lima, Okla., and in Shamrock, Okla., near Drumright.
“Access to high speed internet has become a necessity for rural residents and communities that want to compete in today’s economy,” Ryan McMullen, State Director of USDA Rural Development, says. “These type of investments help level the playing field for rural Oklahoma.”
“Like the USDA Community Connect program, @Link WiFi is dedicated to elevating the educational, fiscal and social opportunities in rural communities by enabling high-speed Internet access,” Samual Curtis, President of @Link Services, LLC, says. “We are thrilled that Kildare was chosen as a grant recipient and will benefit from the availability of free computer workstations and high speed internet access.
About USDA Rural Development Community Connect
The USDA Rural Development Community Connect Program serves rural communities where broadband service is least likely to be available, but where it can make a tremendous difference in the quality of life for citizens. The projects funded by these grants will help rural residents tap into the enormous potential of the Internet.
USDA Rural Development's mission is to increase economic opportunity and improve the quality of life for rural residents. Rural Development has invested more than $76.8 billion since 2001 for equity and technical assistance to finance and foster growth in home ownership, business development, and critical community and technology infrastructure. More than 1.5 million jobs have been created or saved through these investments. For more information visit - www.usda.gov/rus/telecom/commconnect.htm
About @Link WiFi
Owned and operated in Oklahoma City, @Link WiFi's quality-driven internet, WiFi and VoIP phone service is more than six years proven. @Link customers enjoy the fastest combined download and upload internet speeds in Oklahoma, local customer care representatives, and a network which is maintained locally by experienced company technicians. For more information visit: www.atlinkwifi.com or call (405) 753-7151.
Federal program offers broadband Internet service to small Oklahoma towns that have no access.
SHAMROCK — Tall weeds surround the flat tires of abandoned police cars behind the now defunct city hall, and the modest post office that serves less than 100 Shamrock residents is in danger of being closed.
But, starting today, Shamrock area residents can access the Internet for free via a blazing fast broadband connection.
An oil-fueled boomtown decades ago, Shamrock shut down its city services last year because it no longer could pay its bills. The abandoned city hall now houses 10 online computers in a new community center run by @Link Services LLC, an Oklahoma City-based Internet service provider that focuses on rural markets. The firm obtained a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture through a program designed to bring broadband to unserved small towns.
“This is going to be the last place anyone would provide Internet without government funding because there is no chance of turning a profit,” said Kerry Conn, chief financial officer of @Link Services. “But if you don't have Internet services, your town is going to die.”
Bringing broadband
Area residents, who have had Internet access only through slow dial-up service or pricey satellite-based broadband, now can get it for free at the community center or by buying competitively priced broadband service through @Link.
The company benefits by using federal funds to build out its Oklahoma City-based network to reach Shamrock, CEO Samual Curtis said. @Link built a large tower in Stillwater to bridge the gap to Shamrock, Curtis said, and that tower provides access to thousands of potential new customers.
The USDA Rural Development Community Connect Program grant totaled $535,998 and @Link contributed $133,999 to the Shamrock project. The company must keep the community center open at least two years.
Federal money also helped the company launch a similar effort in New Lima, where a local school is housing the free-access computers. That operation gave the company access to Shawnee and Seminole markets, and became self-sustaining in less than a year. @Link also plans to partner with a school to bring broadband to Kildare, which will provide the company access to potential new customers in Perry and Tonkawa, Curtis said.
“Broadband is a very easy sell where there is no broadband,” Curtis said.
Shamrock's bad luck
Sapulpa lawyer Bill Sellers, court-appointed receiver of Shamrock's assets, said the Internet effort offers hope for an insolvent town in danger of disappearing.
“It gives people a place to congregate and a light burning all night long, which is nice,” Sellars said. “We're hoping that it's the anchor for some improvement in the area. It certainly can't hurt, and we hope it brings people to the community.
Sellers' grandfather operated a bank and a dry goods store in Shamrock, a town where a lone diner now constitutes its business district.
As its population and tax base declined, Shamrock survived on revenue from traffic tickets, Sellers said.
Creek County authorities learned some of the people writing those tickets weren't commissioned officers, and shut down that source of funds.
“There just wasn't enough money to pay the bills that were owed by the town,” Sellers said. The fire department and cemetery are seeking to become nonprofit entities, and the rest of the town's assets will be sold, Sellers said.
“We will unincorporate the town, dissolve the town,” he said. “It will become part of the county.”
Moving in
The abrupt shutdown of the town government left @Link employees with some interesting clean up as they prepared to move into the former city hall, Conn said.
“It looked like they just locked the doors and left,” she said. “Coffee cups were still on the desks.”
An evidence locker still contained a variety of items, although log sheets showed beer and marijuana held as evidence had disappeared. A refrigerator contained what appeared to be rotting meat tagged as evidence, but Conn said she still isn't sure exactly what it was.
John Miller, a resident of Shamrock's Blarney Avenue, wandered into the new community center on Wednesday to inquire about renting space for servers to host Internet sites. By the time he left, Curtis had supplied him with a fee schedule for wifi services.
“It's kind of a good feeling knowing you can help someone,” Curtis said.
Miller, a welder by trade, said he was glad to see broadband service in his hometown.
“Shamrock will survive, even if it's only with the name,” he said.
If you have an atlinkwifi email account, you may have received an email asking for your email account information (Email Address, Password, DoB, etc). Please be aware this was NOT sent by @Link WiFi, as we do not request such information via email.
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@Link WiFi is pleased to announce the recent addition of 3 new Towers. These towers include Lima (Wewoka), Minco, and Piedmont.
We already had one tower in Piedmont, but with this addition we will now be able to provide service to residents West of Piedmont that we had not been able to reach previously. If you live in one of these areas and would like to get internet service, please call our sales department (405-753-7151) for more information.
