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Fiber at Home With the Finke Family

MidSouth Fiber high-speed internet offers big benefits for local households

MidSouth Fiber Internet is working hard to bring fast fiber internet to all MidSouth Electric Co-op communities. With more than 4,000 active subscribers, crews have been working as safely and diligently as possible to ensure that our members receive the quality service that they have longed for.

For many folks, like the Finke family, rural Texas is home. But when it came to fast internet, they faced a challenge like so many others: Fast internet simply wasn’t available.

Until now.

We sat down with the Finke family to talk about their switch to MidSouth Fiber and what it means for their hardworking household. If you are on the fence about making the switch to bolder, faster fiber, take it from your rural neighbors Mark, Lupe and Weston. Visit midsouthfiber.com to sign up for service or preregister your address.

Describe the average internet usage in your household.

We have never had internet service other than the hot spot features on our smartphones. Let’s just say that our phone data alerts were always going off within two weeks of the start of the month, saying that we were out of our allowable data usage. Keep in mind that the service we had was already rather slow, so when we received the alerts, it became even worse for the remainder of the month.

On average, how many devices do you run at one time?

On average we run about four consecutively. However, many times we are operating up to eight or 10 devices. We have not experienced any decrease in speed whatsoever when we have used all of them at once. Awesome is all I can say.

Tell us about your installation experience.

The installation had a few minor hiccups, yet they figured it out and took action to get us connected within a few days.

What are a few things that have changed in your internet usage habits now that you have fiber?

My internet usage has increased, and the housework has decreased. I love flying through/surfing the internet looking for anything and everything.

Is there anything that you utilize now that you didn’t attempt because of speeds in the past?

Yes, I very rarely would pull up things on YouTube because of the slow speed plus the fact that it would use a lot of my data. Now I am able to utilize it for my real estate company, my shaved ice business and my hobbies. In addition, I can plan for webinars and Zoom meetings with no interruption due to poor service. Plus, the fact that we were never able to watch things like Netflix. Honestly, I didn’t even know what people were talking about when they mentioned it, nor did I care because I knew we would never be able to watch it with our past connection. Now when we have time to sit and watch things, we can watch regular TV shows, movies, DIY shows, etc.—without commercials. Wahoo!

Lupe, how did fiber internet increase your productivity as a realtor?

Amazing! For instance, in the past, when I would have to upload multiple photos of a new listing, I knew it was going to take forever (OK, at least 20–30 minutes). So I would make a point to do it when I could work on things that didn’t require the computer. I never wanted to open anything else on the computer while it was downloading for fear it would disconnect and cause me to start all over again. I recently got to experience downloading photos for the first time with fiber, and I was able to input 30-plus photos in less than one minute! I started shouting words of praise, clapping my hands and feeling like I had witnessed magic. I’ve always been a huge fan and advocate for almost anything MidSouth does; however, adding fiber for the members gives me a whole new appreciation for all that they do for us!

Weston, tell us about the difference you see now in your internet usage.

Living out in the country, I have always had poor internet connection and was forced to constantly revolve my schooling schedule around when my internet was and was not working.

I have had a countless number of frustrating days waiting for a website to load or an assignment to download, never knowing if it would finish so I could begin working on it.

Due to the pandemic, my schoolwork has been entirely online along with my class lectures. The most frustrating part of slow internet was being in the middle of a lecture and the video starting to buffer or even kicking me out of the meeting constantly. There were many times that I would miss something important that was said and would have to ask classmates for the information. In one instance, I was over 15 minutes late to class all because my internet would not connect to the Zoom meeting.

Now that I have the luxury of fiber, I no longer have to wait for a video or website to load, I am on time to meetings, and the amount of time I have to spend on each assignment has been reduced dramatically. Without a doubt, having fiber internet has increased my internet usage because I can do my assignments and then have time to enjoy a little time off between school weeks. I used to have to go into town to take tests at a friend’s house or do important events, but I no longer have to do that, which not only saves me time but saves me so much in gas.

I am very thankful for MidSouth and fiber internet; I will be sad to leave such a reliable internet when I go back to A&M.

Mark, how has working from home changed for you with fiber?

Having MidSouth Fiber has helped tremendously in all aspects of my work. I did not realize how much time I spent waiting on the different programs I utilize. When co-workers would call me with questions regarding a job, I would have to write what they needed down, then return their call after I gathered the information. Now having Fiber, I no longer have to deal with that. I’m able to handle it immediately.

Would you recommend MidSouth Fiber and why?

I’ve seen firsthand how much time, attention, dedication, commitment and work that has gone in to making this available for all the MidSouth members. From the start to present, it has taken their staff a few years to implement, yet they stayed diligent in making it happen for us. Although there are multiple reasons I would recommend MidSouth, this one reason alone is why I am happy that I have them. They truly stand by their slogan, which is “people committed to people.” Thank you, MidSouth, for your commitment to providing us with this new internet choice as a member!

For more information, to schedule your installation or to pre-register your address, please visit midsouthfiber.com.