On the upload: Williams internet provider brings the speeds

WILLIAMS, Ariz. — The struggle to find good internet service in Williams is a little easier with a new provider on the block. Select Net has moved into Williams to provide line of sight, 4G technology to Williams residents and business owners.

Karin Olivier and Bjorn Nittmo are Directv, Dish Network, CenturyLink, and HughesNet authorized retailers out of Cottonwood who have recently branched out as an independent internet service provider.

After working with many Williams business owners, Olivier and Nittmo found that many had a common complaint of lack of quality internet service.

“We found there were so many issues with the businesses who could not get decent internet we started exploring options,” Olivier said.

Olivier and Nittmo work the Highway 64 corridor, Tusayan and Grand Canyon and found the same complaints in those areas.

“The only real option was Centurylink and satellite internet options,” Olivier said. “Satellite internet is not really a good option because of the beam, Williams is not in a strong beam.”

Olivier and Nittmo began exploring what they could provide for the area. They knew good service was needed from Williams all the way to the Grand Canyon, but couldn’t begin with such a large territory.

“We couldn’t start in the Grand Canyon and work backward,” Olivier said. “The demand for Williams was much greater and we decided to branch out from there.”

Olivier and Nitto created Select Net this fall and put their first tower on airport road.

“We are starting in Williams proper, but our goal is to get out to the north side of Williams to Highway 64,” she said. “We would like to grow that direction in the next few months while we are trying to build our customer base.”

Olivier explained that Select Net is a line of sight service. She said the technology just requires a home or business to be within the line of the tower.

“What is blocking us from highway 64 are the mountains to the north, so we are going to have to hop around that to get to that location,” she said.

Olivier said their current tower has line of sight with most of Williams proper, the golf course subdivisions and some areas south of town.

She said line of sight is only limited by a home or business being blocked from sight of the tower by hills or trees. She said it differs from companies like CenturyLink that use DSL, which goes through the phone lines.

Olivier said the most important business practice for Select Net is to provide good service and deliver promised speeds.

“Our speed is consistent and that’s really what we pride ourselves on,” she said. “It’s easy to sell service but we back it up with what the capabilities are.”

Olivier said since there is no sharing of lines, service does not slow down with the amount of users. She said Select Net will go out to an interested customer to insure they have line of sight prior to purchasing the service.

“We don’t just slap on the service,” she said. “We make sure the signal strength is good by doing a site survey first with our tester modem. We want to see if they are getting good signal strength and we are actually able to provide the service the customer wants.”

Oliver said Select Net offers three plans which vary between 4 — 20 Mbps download and 1-3 Mbps upload speeds. They have special business plans and customized higher speeds upon request.

The service requires no contract and no data limits. The company does all its own sales, installs and service. The technology requires placing an external modem on the exterior of a customer’s home or business and the service enters the building via an Ethernet cable that plugs into a router or directly into a computer.

More information can be found by contacting Select Net at (928) 635-1200 or visiting the website NAZSelectNet.com