LIMA, Ohio — As the federal government provides additional resources for families to better afford broadband Internet, one local service provider is stepping up the speeds it can offer households.

Watch Communications, which is building new towers throughout central Illinois, is offering residential customers speeds up to 100 megabits per second and plans that can be combined with residential telephone and TV services.

“Faster Internet speeds facilitate simultaneous access to rich online content and services by multiple people in the home using various devices,” said Watch Communications President and CEO Chris Daniels. “We know there are a lot of people who are still working from home and students who are still engaging in remote learning. We want to make sure that people have access to fast and reliable Internet services.”

“Even as work- and school-from-home restrictions ease, people expect their Internet connections to do more,” Daniels said.

“A strong, reliable Internet connection is not a luxury – it’s a necessity in today’s world,” he added. “We want to make sure that, no matter where they live, our customers can access high-speed Internet. A person’s access to education and employment should not be limited by their zip code.”

Watch Communications is a participant in the Federal Communications Commission’s Connect America Fund II program. Also referred to as CAF II, the program was designed to expand broadband and voice services to hard-to-serve areas. It is part of an overall push from the federal government to expand high-speed Internet into rural America.

The FCC held a series of reverse-auctions where Internet Service Providers (ISPs) bid on large swaths of land where the companies wanted to expand their footprints. Watch Communications began expanding into Illinois in late 2019 after acquiring Beyond Media. That initial foray into the Land of Lincoln led to Watch’s confidence that it could provide better broadband services for people in the Central part of the state.

Leveraging a fiber-fed fixed-wireless strategy, Watch Communications is taking advantage of industry-leading wireless technologies that can provide broadband services in areas with line-of-sight challenges.

“Line-of-sight challenges are a substantial barrier in delivering high-speed and reliable broadband in rural areas,” Daniels said. “The terrain and foliage in a lot of rural areas makes it difficult to achieve line-of-sight to our customers, which most wireless solutions require to provide reliable high-speed services. We leverage solutions that reduce the impact of foliage on the services we offer, making it easier to deploy and less costly for customers.”

As part of this expansion, Watch Communications is building new sites that it will use to connect customers in central Illinois to its network. People living there should call 217-216-1888 or go to www.WatchComm.net/Greetings1 for more information.

“At Watch Communications, we’re really proud to offer high-speed Internet plans that will fit every budget,” Daniels said. “We work with our customers to understand their needs so they’re getting an Internet package and other add-ons like voice or TV with payment options that work for them.”

About Watch Communications

Watch Communications was founded in 1992 and specializes in wireless broadband Internet, fiber Internet, TV, Hosting and VoIP Phone Services to residential and business customers in the rural Midwest. The company began as a wireless cable TV provider and expanded service offerings at the beginning of the Broadband Internet Revolution in 1998 to include Internet. Watch primarily focuses on under- and unserved small and rural markets throughout Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio.