connection www.rainbowtel.net 800-892-0163 Contact Us Office Hours All locations open Monday – Friday: 8 a.m. – 12 p.m. and 1 p.m.– 5 p.m. Atchison Office 721 Commercial Street Atchison, KS 66002 Everest Office 608 Main Street Everest, KS 66424 Hiawatha Office 628 Oregon Street Hiawatha, KS 66434 Seneca Office 513 Main Street Seneca, KS 66538 Technical Support Center 800-892-0163 24 hours a day, 7 days a week Tech Topics at Morrill Public Library From January through April, Rainbow Communications teamed up with Morrill Public Library in Hiawatha, KS, to host a two-hour streaming class monthly about tech topics of concern to our senior citizens. We covered subjects such as avoiding scammers, protecting your passwords, streaming movies and shows, and cleaning out unwanted emails.Thank you to everyone that attended! July/August/September 2023 THE RAINBOW Cornerstone Group © 2023 Rainbow Invests in Fiber for Our Entire Service Area How can Rainbow best prepare for future bandwidth demands? Do we upgrade our existing coaxial networks or go all-in to deliver a superior broadband experience through fiber network expansion in all our communities? We choose to go all in with Fiber-to-the-Home. After all, these are our hometowns and where we live and work. We have deep roots in our communities and incredible partnerships with schools, hospitals, libraries, churches, foundations, nonprofit organizations, and local governments. We aim to enhance lives by delivering broadband service to help our communities attract more talent, families, and work-from-home opportunities. Expanding our fiber-optic network from business districts to customer homes enables more developing, improving, growing, and innovating. In Hiawatha, construction will begin this summer to expand Rainbow’s fiber-optic network to all customer homes, with in-home installs as early as March 2024. Rainbow will also overbuild our coaxial network towns with fiber optics, which include Elwood, Highland, Horton, Sabetha, Seneca, Troy, andWathena. The order of the fiber buildout is yet to be determined, but we envision all towns complete by 2027. The construction cost for these towns is estimated at $46 million, and will involve nearly 175 miles of fiber-optic cabling to serve about 13,000 people. The time and investment will be worth it, since it means residents will receive much faster Internet speeds at or near the current pricing. Plus, the existing fiber-optic network for businesses will upgrade its speed capability from 1 Gbps (1,000 Mbps) to multi-gig levels. Rainbow already has a fiber network in our cooperative areas of Arrington, Bendena, Denton, Everest, Huron, Larkinburg, Leona, Muscotah, Robinson, Severance, Willis, andWhiting. In recent years, we expanded fiber to Effingham and Lancaster and are currently building in Atchison. It’s planting season for homegrown fiber Internet! We’re growing a superior network for greater bandwidth capacity and an amazing future—filled with doing more, creating more, working smarter, and playing harder.
Jason Smith, CEO, Reflects on 25 Years at Rainbow It’s hard to believe that I’ve worked for Rainbow for 25 years. I’m incredibly grateful for the time I spent at our company, the opportunities I had, and people I met along the way who enhanced my life. The rural telecommunications industry has changed significantly in the past 25 years, and I know it will keep changing. In 1998, Rainbow provided landline phone service to 1,500 locations and was just starting to offer dial-up Internet service with a speed of 33.6 Kbps over a copperbased network. Today, we can provide broadband services with speeds of 1 Gbps and hosted voice services to over 10,000 locations over a fiber-based network. Rainbow’s evolution would not have been possible without the board’s foresight, the leadership of the management that preceded me, and the company’s past and present staff, who have embraced change daily to deliver exceptional service to our customers. I am blessed to be surrounded by great people and look forward to carrying out the company’s mission with them for years to come. Community foundations focus on building and strengthening communities by pooling resources from individuals, businesses, and other organizations to support local initiatives.These foundations are unique because they can serve as a bridge between donors and local organizations, providing a centralized platform for philanthropy and community development. Each community foundation throughout the Rainbow service area hosts a Match Day. Its purpose is to help the foundation raise money for its various funds by collecting matching dollars donated by individuals and businesses. This allows the dollars raised to go further for each fund that receives donations. “Match Day is a way to give back to local nonprofits and funds within the community foundation. No donation is too small to make a positive impact. Last year, there was a child who donated $10 (of her hard-earned babysitting money), joyfully giving to several funds. It brought tears to my eyes to see her thoughtfully ask about the funds and who would be impacted by her donation. What a heart for serving others in need,” said Tory Jost, Nemaha County Step Foundation President. In 2023, Rainbow donated $3,000 in match dollars to each of our local community foundations, totaling $18,000 for Match Days. “We hope this matching fund donation can help make a larger overall impact on our local community groups,” commented Jason Smith, Rainbow General Manager/CEO. Please help our communities by donating during their designated Match Days. Listed below are the local community foundations with their upcoming 2023 dates and where to get details. • South Brown County Community Foundation – July 11-14 – www.growsouthbrown.com • Atchison Area Community Foundation – August 18 – www.allaboardatchison.com • Nemaha STEP Foundation – August 25 – www.steupnemaha.com • Greater Sabetha Community Foundation – November 17-20 – www.givetogrowday.com • Doniphan County Community Foundation – December 1 – www.givewhereyouliveday.com The Hiawatha Community Foundation’s Match Day was May 26-29, 2023. You can see the results at www.givebacktomoveforward.com. Rainbow Donates Match Money to Local Foundations Jason Smith presents a donation to Jackie Petersen and Krissy Torkelson of the South Brown County Community Foundation.
Cornerstone Group © 2023 What Will the Future Look Like With Fiber? Fiber-to-the-Home is the only technology that delivers enough bandwidth, reliably and at a low enough cost, tomeet the demands of the future. When you take a peek at what’s ahead, you’ll see amazing possibilities for fiber applications including: • Telehealth will give instant access to medical specialists via videoconferencing from the home, fitness center, or community room. This videoconferencing may be integrated with Internet-enabled diagnostic devices (such as blood pressure cuffs and respiration measurement), electronic medical records systems, online prescription services, and online appointment setting. • Community-based security systems will be stationed on light poles and buildings around neighborhoods. Consisting of linked IP video cameras and sensors, these systems could identify and track intruders as well as automatically notify owners, security companies, and the police. Fiber networks will support the broadcast and recording of extremely high-resolution photos that are more useful for deterring and apprehending intruders. • Arts and educational applications will use high-end video conferencing in community centers, outdoor areas, or children’s play centers. This will bring live performances, virtual museum tours, music lessons, book readings, and other interactive events into the community. Residents in small communities will be able to easily experience some of the benefits of big-city life. • Concierge and home-automation services will make residents’ lives more comfortable and convenient. For example, cameras will be able to recognize residents’ cars entering the community and alert parking attendants and security personnel, and then turn on lights and heating or air conditioning inside homes. Rainbow Communications is very excited about the future with fiber and is currently expanding our fiber-optic network. For an update on this project, see page 1. Everything’s Easier With a Local Business There are many community-centered reasons to buy local whenever possible. For example, when you choose to buy products or services from a local business, you’re supporting a local employer and helping to boost the local economy. You’re also enabling unique independent businesses to keep going, which is important since they add personality and appeal to the community. In addition, there are other easy-toappreciate reasons to buy local. When you choose a local business, it’s: • Easier to talk to a human being. Your call won’t be transferred to a faraway place. Instead, it will be answered by a local employee. • Easier to get responsive customer service. You can count on being treated well whenever there’s an issue to resolve. • Easier to enjoy the shopping experience. Isn’t it more fun to do business with a local owner or manager who clearly has a passion for what they do? Rainbow Communications encourages you to buy local and thanks you for choosing us, the local communications provider.
Cornerstone Group © 2022 www.facebook.com/ RainbowCommunications RainbowCommunications Broadband is the Backbone for Medical Devices You’ve probably heard of the Internet ofThings (IoT), which includes items like smart refrigerators and smart thermostats. But did you know there’s a subset within this category called the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT)? The IoMT covers equipment used in a variety of places: • On body – wearable devices, peripherals, and implants • In home – digital and virtual assistants, activity monitors, and home medical devices • Within the community – automated kiosks and emergency response intelligence • In clinics and hospitals – handheld medical devices, care coordination technologies, and patient/personnel flow tools Broadband has a profound impact on the medical industry by serving as the wired backbone supporting connectivity to the IoMT. Access to broadband is critical for communication between medical devices as more health organizations depend on this technology. Rainbow Communications is working toward a healthier tomorrow by providing broadband Internet service throughout our service area. It’s often called the digital divide. Rural areas of the U.S. have less Internet access than urban areas. High-speed wired connections are less common, and wireless phone service and signals tend to be weaker than in cities or not available at all. According to the FCC’s Eighth Broadband Progress Report, approximately 19 million Americans—6 percent of the population—still lack access to fixed broadband service at threshold speeds. (The FCC defines broadband service as offering minimum speeds of 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload.) In rural areas, nearly one-fourth of the population—14.5 million people—lack access to this service. In tribal areas, nearly one-third of the population lacks access.1 Often, it’s not financially viable for big Internet service providers to expand into rural areas. In urban communities, a mile-long cable might pass dozens, or even hundreds, of homes and businesses. Rural Internet requires longer wires —and often special signalboosting equipment —with fewer potential customers from whom to recoup the costs. Even with federal grants designed to make these expansions more affordable, hundreds of U.S. communities are essentially “Internet deserts.” While Rainbow provides a robust broadband network throughout our service area, one of our goals is to advocate for rural areas with limited broadband. That’s why Jason Smith, GM and CEO, recently went to Washington, DC to visit with Senators Moran and Marshall and Representatives Mann and LaTurner about the importance of rural broadband. Smith educated them on the need for continued support in building and maintaining networks for future generations. Independent rural Internet providers, like Rainbow, are best suited to expand broadband in rural areas.They already understand what it takes to provide their communities with broadband connections—at speeds that increase efficiency and help attract businesses and work-from-home residents. However, the FCC and Congress must help fund the investment needed to bridge the digital divide and make broadband service more available and affordable. Rainbow will continue to advocate and educate on behalf of rural America. 1Source: https://www.fcc.gov/reports-research/reports/broadband-progress-reports/eighth-broadbandprogress-report Rainbow Advocates for Rural Broadband Internet Jason Smith (fourth from the left), Rainbow GM and CEO, stands with Kansas delegates and other NTCA– The Rural Broadband Association members during an April meeting on Capitol Hill.
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