History
Take a retired Major from the US Army Signal Corps, with experience working for Motorola setting up two-way radio networks and advanced paging systems; and then have Al Gore invent the Internet and what do you get? RadioWire.net. RadioWire.net is a company specializing in providing dependable high speed Internet to remote rural areas at an affordable price.
RadioWire.net is the invention of Ron Cisco, whom retired from the Army in 1981; and then spent the next five years putting his wireless radio skills to work for Motorola. It all started in 2003 when Ron went to Freeburg Honda dealer to buy a 4-wheeler for deer season. While he was there, the dial-up Internet service went down and the owner was not happy. Ron told the owner if he could grant him access to the Freeburg water tower he could give them high speed Internet access.
After talking to the city council, Ron gained access to the water tower. It didn’t take the retired Signal Corps officer long to set up an antenna and radio transmitters, which then provided Freeburg Honda with even faster Internet service than they had before.
It didn’t take long for word to spread about this new service in the small town of Freeburg. In no time they had over 50 subscribers. The business grew fast and soon expanded into the neighboring towns of Linn, Loose Creek, and Mary’s Home. During the early years it was hard to keep all the clients happy. Ron was adding antennas and radios as new customers called, but sometimes the new equipment didn’t hold up or was not as dependable as it should be. Ron added, "Even though I had experience with radio networking and the available equipment, we learned a lot those first three years. It took some trial and error to find the best radios and antennas that were best suited for Wi-Fi and would work in all kinds of weather."
Before upgrading the radios and antennas over time, RadioWire.net provided customers with 512 Kbps download and 128 Kbps upload speeds for $45.00 a month. While this was 30 times faster than dial up, it still didn’t allow rural residents to fully use the Internet like the city neighbors. After the upgrades, RadioWire.net clients had 2.5 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload speeds for the same $45.00 a month. With download speeds of 2.5 Mbps, their residential clients could not only check email and surf the Web, but they could now easily download software, YouTube videos, and play video games. The new speeds also allowed businesses to quickly charge credit cards, submit reports to headquarters, and better communicate with their customers. Providing high speed Internet services to commercial customers has been an unexpected part of RadioWire.net’s business growth. Over the past 5 years the commercial customer base has grown over 20%.
With steady growth and a back log of future customers waiting for service, in 2008, Ryan Herzing, who had been installing satellite TV in the rural areas, joined the RadioWire.net team. Ryan added, "I was working in the same area they were serving and I saw how fast their business was growing so I jumped at the chance to work for a growing company with a solid reputation for service. It’s hard going on service calls and dealing with frustrated customers, but at RadioWire.net we are providing people with something they desperately wanted and it’s not work when you’re making people happy."
A big reason RadioWire.net has seen over a 300% increase in their business, in the last five years, has been word of mouth advertising. Access to high speed Internet is becoming an important part of most family’s lives and for business it can be vital.
Go forward 12 years, and 7 full time employees later, RadioWire.net still provides internet at $45.00 per month with newer technology and equipment. Our low cost standard installation of $99.00 and affordable internet packages allow households all over the Callaway, Cole, Osage, Moniteau, Gasconade, Maries, Miller, and Morgan counties to do what city households can do. RadioWire.net also offers a discounted installation and one month free service for customers with a son, daughter, husband, or wife serving in the military overseas. "As a veteran, I know what it is like to be away from family when in the military. It takes high speed Internet for families to Skype their loved ones serving overseas and we are thankful to be able to help so many families stay in touch with our service," said Ron.
While many rural areas across Missouri struggle with Internet access, residents around Jefferson City are able to get on the Internet highway thanks to RadioWire.net. Customer service and satisfaction is a key factor to measuring the success of RadioWire.net.