IdeaTek still sees room to grow rural broadband across Kansas

In recent years, a variety of government broadband funding programs have emerged to address what many people living in small towns knew long before: Rural markets were both under-served and under-appreciated by big technology companies, and not just for broadband, but for just about any technology product or service that comes to mind. IdeaTek, a computer services company that was founded in 1999, pivoted in 2005 into providing internet services, initially dial-up and later DSL, and, by 2007, a small number of fiber-to-the-home connections in five small Kansas towns. In 2011, IdeaTek built its first fiber connection for a Verizon Wireless tower and latched onto the booming business of helping to spread wireless coverage across Kansas by providing fiber-based backhaul. In 2015, IdeaTek sold its successful fiber-to-the-tower business and pivoted again to addressing the need for broadband services – and better broadband deals – for Kansas customers. Still largely self-funded through its first decade and a half in business, IdeaTek in 2017 earned its first broadband grant, a $6 million award from the Federal Communications Commission to fund a three-town fiber project. In 2020, it acquired a wireless broadband firm called Skylink Wireless and earned another $13.7 million in federal funding, which it bundled together with $3.5 million in private investment to provide a mix of fiber connections and 100 Mbps fixed wireless access to about 13,000 homes in about 50 markets of various sizes across Central and Western Kansas.