Evanston tech company brings internet to rural Wyoming
15 Jan 2019
Gregory and David Jones, founders of NGL Connection, grew up without Internet access. Rather than bemoan their loss, they put their minds to solving the problem. The solution they developed as teenagers has grown into a business that delivers high-speed internet to thousands of homes in rural Wyoming.
An innovative solution
As teenagers growing up outside Craig, Colo., the Jones brothers had no way to access the internet. Their desire to get online was so great they figured out how to send the signal through the air using a friend’s existing service.
They were soon asked to provide the service for their neighborhood, and thus, the business was born.
The technology used by the Jones’ brothers’ company makes it possible to provide high-speed internet service to rural areas through a network of links carried by towers to antennas on the structures receiving NGL Connection’s services.
Moving to Wyoming
There was a viable and targeted need for wireless service in rural areas of Wyoming. Knowing their technology could solve the problem, the Jones brothers purchased an existing company in Wyoming, allowing them to replicate their solution throughout NGL Connection’s service area.
Since then, they have built a wireless internet company that provides service to over 2,300 people in southwest Wyoming and extends into rural parts of northern Utah.
They specialize in serving remote areas with limited, or nonexistent, affordable, high-speed internet options. The company has also expanded to provide personalized IT.
They provide remote management and technician services for both businesses and residential clients. This allows NGL Connection employees to service computers located anywhere in the country.
Additionally, they repair computers and resolve hardware issues. They have 21 employees located in Evanston, Kemmerer and Big Piney.
Focused on innovation
The Jones brothers pioneered a solution to rural Wyoming and rural America’s current challenge – how to access high-speed internet without investing millions or billions in infrastructure improvements.
Wyoming’s pro-business, pro-growth environment helped to make this possible.
Where the regulatory environment of other states may have made it difficult for the Jones brothers to implement their technology, Wyoming wasn’t. As a result, a Wyoming company has grown and, more importantly, families and businesses in rural Wyoming now have the high-speed internet connections they need to participate in the global marketplace.