A Continuous Commitment to our Communities | GBT 2021 Year in Recap

January 31, 2022

As we start a new year, I would like to take a moment to say THANK YOU to our many customers and update you on a few company happenings.

GBT’s Fiber Network continues to grow, with homes and businesses getting blazing fast Internet connections that only fiber can deliver! Many rural areas lack fiber because it isn’t financially viable for big Internet companies to provide service due to lack of population density. The GBT Cooperative has invested over $40 million in the last 13 years to bring 94% of our members a ROBUST Fiber Connection! 2021’s focus included the rural areas of Brownell, Bazine, and McCracken—meaning these areas, along with current fiber-connected members, will have access to Gigabit Internet connections and the best experience available in the area! The GBT Cooperative has three more exchanges–Bison, Burdett, and Garfield—planned to receive fiber connections in 2022. I am sure many of you unwrapped an Internet-connected device this holiday season that depends on a robust Internet connection to deliver the desired performance. The GBT Cooperative understands the broadband needs of our members are evolving–upgrading to 100% Fiber Optic Network throughout our area has been part of our long-term commitment and strategy that should wrap up in the next three years!

Getting expert, local IT help is easy with GBT Business Technology Solutions. GBT has increased its offering of Business IT Solutions recently because of demand from our customers. As technology evolves and society becomes more dependent on the Internet for commerce, attacks have become increasingly more common. Often hackers target small business because of the lack of security infrastructure to protect against these threats. Whether a business is large or small, when IT issues arise, productivity can come to a standstill. Our team is close, accessible, and ready to help keep your business running. Call us, and we will customize a package to meet your individual needs!

In addition to deploying more Fiber Infrastructure and ramping up our Cybersecurity offerings, GBT converted all video customers to StreamIT TV. Customers are enjoying a feature-rich platform, including FREE DVR, full HD, instant rewind & replay, with no clunky set-top boxes, that integrates well with other streaming platforms, such as Netflix and ESPN+.

“It is easy to think of us as just an Internet provider. However, our GBT Team takes a lot of pride in ensuring the communities we serve can meet their economic needs, trade their commodities, grow academically, entertain, and participate in commerce.”

As I wrap this up, I want to take a moment to recognize all the people that make our services work and keep our technology moving forward. It is easy to take for granted the work they do to keep our members connected. In a perfect world, the services we provide should largely be invisible. If you peel back the layers, you will quickly realize the thousands of miles of fiber, the complex hardware, fiscal oversight, and expertise that CONNECT YOU to the world! It is easy to think of us as just an Internet provider. However, our GBT Team takes a lot of pride in ensuring the communities we serve can meet their economic needs, trade their commodities, grow academically, entertain, and participate in commerce.

Our Cooperative has seven core values that guide the direction for what each of us strive to deliver to our membership. The one that really makes us unique is our commitment to our communities—Team GBT is actively involved in local happenings to help support them physically and economically. Part of the ongoing commitment of this value is to continue to learn from our members so we can deliver on what is important to you.

GBT, with the leadership of our Board of Trustees, our dedicated Team of Employees, and our loyal Members, will be around to deliver communication needs to the membership well into the future. From all of us at GBT, Happy New Year!

Beau Rebel / GBT General Manager

The Fiber Road Less Traveled – GBT’s 600-Mile Fiber Quest in Rural Kansas

Community, Internet

If you drove from Kansas City to Denver, it would take you almost 9 hours and a little over 600 miles to get there. Now what does this distance have to do with GBT? That’s the approximate amount of fiber optic cabling, 600 miles, that GBT is installing to homes and businesses in our Rural Part of Kansas, just in 2023! Fiber optics is hard to visualize because it’s just a small piece of glass the size of a human hair, but if we stay on the roads theme, GBT is essentially laying 600 miles of a 1,000-lane highway to 100s of rural residents so they have the same access to broadband and the world that many of us take for granted. As one resident who was recently connected to fiber Internet services conveyed to GBT, “For the first time since we have lived in the country, we now know what it’s like to have Internet that we can do anything we want with. We can watch streaming shows on our tv, my kids can do homework on their tablets, and my husband and I can browse or search the Internet all at the same time. It is amazing!” “For the first time since we have lived in the country, we now know what it’s like to have Internet that we can do anything we want with. We can watch streaming shows on our TV, my kids can do homework on their tablets, and my husband and I can browse or search the Internet all at the same time. It is amazing!” With 600 miles of fiber being buried in the ground, and hundreds of homes that need to be connected, planning, timing, and implementation is key. GBT understands everyone is excited and wants to be first to get fiber, and it is our goal to get fiber deployed as quickly as possible, but not at the expense of quality, safety, or reliability. When deploying fiber, many just see the final part of the process when GBT technicians install the fiber service inside the home, but few realize that staking, right-of-way permits, ordering and receiving of materials, main-line and drop-to-the-home construction, installation of central office electronics,...

2023 Annual Meeting Recap

Community, Cooperative, Press Releases

GBT held its 70th Annual Meeting Wednesday, April 19, 2023, at the GBT Headquarters in Rush Center. A drive-thru meeting was conducted, with 124 Members receiving an Annual Meeting booklet of 2022 Reports, along with a ballot. Board member elections were held for District 2 – Ellis, McCracken and District 4 – Alexander, Bazine, Rush Center. Election Results: District 2 – Philip Martin; District 4 – Gene Knieling. All members attending were provided a BBQ meal and door prizes. Congratulations to the following winners of the Special Drawing Prizes: Retirement of $250 Capital Credit – Paul Jost, Rush Center Retirement of $250 Capital Credit – Daryl North, Ellis 1 Month Free Internet – Lavern Schneider, Albert 1 Month Free Internet – Terry Seltmann, Rush Center $70 GBT Bill Credit – Joey Bevitt, Rush Center $70 GBT Bill Credit – Clarence Foos, Bazine $70 GBT Bill Credit –Harry & Helen Thorne, Rozel $70 GBT Bill Credit –Corey & Cari Torrez, Rush Center $70 GBT Bill Credit –Brandi Seltmann, Bazine $70 GBT Bill Credit –Hoop & Twila Higgins, McCracken $70 GBT Bill Credit – Don Hanhardt, Albert $70 GBT Bill Credit – Fred Flax, Ransom $70 GBT Bill Credit – Cynthya Billinger, Lewis $70 GBT Bill Credit – Linda Bahr, Otis

GBT Annual Meeting 2023 – Letter from the General Manager

Community, Cooperative

I am grateful to have this yearly opportunity to connect with our members and share cooperative happenings. It allows GBT representatives to visit and provide members with our successes, challenges, finances, and plans for the future. For 70 years, all our member-owners have trusted us to connect you to the world. Although we call this an annual meeting, it is really a celebration for you, our member-owners. This year embarks a special celebration as the cooperative not only celebrates its 70th year in business, but also anticipates crossing the finish line on connecting every member with FIBER!!! The Cooperative covers over 3,200 square miles with 1.6 members per mile, so this mark comes with a lot of pride from the GBT team. This kind of accomplishment doesn’t happen without a vision that has covered many decades of sound leadership, planning, and commitment from past and present Board members and employees. Over the last couple decades, that vision includes investing in fiber; GBT believes a fiber investment is one that keeps the future in mind. A fiber network transforms rural areas by strengthening commerce, advancing education, enabling precision agriculture, and improving healthcare. The GBT Board gave the direction to begin plowing fiber to its members in 2007, and now in 2023, we are 97% complete! GBT has invested over $46 million dollars in fiber to the home builds since the Board directed back in ‘07. In 2022, the rural areas of Garfield and nearly all the Bison exchange were completed, along with the City of St. John. It is our objective to build the rural areas of Burdett, Otis, Utica, and Beeler this year, along with the cities of Larned, Macksville, and Stafford. We can be grateful that our financial position comes at a time when we are on the cusp of a capital expenditure program of more than $15 million in fiber deployment. The cooperative feels very strongly about ensuring our members have a reliable and quality broadband...

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