Community Archives - Golden Belt / GBT Communications

2023 Annual Meeting Recap

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...

Fiber Internet for Rural Pawnee & Stafford Counties

Mar 7, 2023

Governor Kelly recently announced that GBT was awarded a $6,782,694 grant from the State of Kansas through the Kansas Capital Project Funds Broadband Infrastructure Program. This grant will be used by GBT to provide Fiber Internet, Voice, & TV services to...

Giving & Gratitude

Nov 8, 2022

The month of November tends to make people take a moment and recognize what they are thankful for and at GBT we are no different. The picture above highlights the individuals that form the GBT team and without each and everyone we could not provide the high level of...

Co-ops build Economic Power

Oct 8, 2022

October is National Cooperative Month, and this year’s theme “Co-ops Build Economic Power,” is lived out every day by GBT! When GBT began in 1953, a group of individuals came together to form a Cooperative with Member-Owners to fill the unmet need of providing...

2022 GBT Annual Meeting

Community

[elfsight_social_share_buttons id="2"]April 2022 | 5 MIN READEMBRACING TECHNOLOGY AFFECTS QUALITY OF LIFE?95%GBT members who have speeds up to 1 Gig! $3.85 MDollars GBT has invested to bring Fiber to our members. $1.7 MDollars in capital credits that were retired $1.7 MDollars GBT donated back to our communities to improve lives and promote the local economy. As we look back at 2021, it will go down as a transformational year for the Cooperative and industry. The importance of broadband was brought on by the onset of COVID as many across the country were working, educating, shopping, and participating in wellness from home. The demand for Internet and usage of the GBT network was the highest the Cooperative had witnessed to date, and it generated many conversations about universal broadband and the billons of Federal dollars earmarked to address unserved and underserved areas across the country. Where is GBT in comparison to the rest of providers around the country? We are all exposed to the advertising of the national providers across some medium, so we hear about fast speeds, 5G, fiber, etc. The truth of the matter is, GBT is very different from those national providers focused on providing a return to their shareholders and with whom they have little to no idea of who their customers are. GBT is focused on our mission of providing the best user experience to our customers through reliable state-of-the-art communications services. Our customers are our neighbors, friends, and members who live and play in the same communities we serve and love! Our network is connecting 95% of the members by state-of-the-art fiber infrastructure that allows them to have speeds up to 1 GIG upload and download. While big, out-of-state broadband providers are making a big deal about starting to bring fiber to rural communities, GBT first brought fiber to our members in the late 1990’s and connected the first community to fiber-to-the-home in 2008! Today GBT...

Fiber is the name of the game

Community, Internet

[elfsight_social_share_buttons id="2"] APRIL 2022 | 2 MIN READ FIBER IS THE NAME OF THE GAME. As GBT continues to provide the best Internet and Communication services to residents and businesses in our area, GBT is very excited to announce the expansion of Fiber services in 2022 to the communities of St. John and Larned, as well as bringing Fiber to the rural customers in the Garfield, Burdett, and Bison exchanges. The 2022 rural exchange Fiber builds will begin in Garfield this summer, followed by Burdett, and finishing in Bison. St. John - Bringing an even BETTER user experience. GBT has been providing communication services to the community of St. John since 2008. GBT General Manager Beau Rebel stated, “With the continued growth and support GBT has seen in the community and the need for even faster Internet services than what we provide today, it was an easy decision to invest and upgrade our current infrastructure to a fully Fiber network within the entire city limits of St. John. We hope the community is excited to have access to Fiber services and understands the positive economic impacts Fiber can have with this upgrade.” GBT plans to start converting St. John customers to Fiber in the Summer of 2022. “It was an easy decision to invest and upgrade our current infrastructure to a fully Fiber network within the entire city limits of St. John. We hope the community is excited to have access to Fiber services and understands the positive economic impacts Fiber can have with this upgrade.” Larned - Filling a Fiber need. In Larned, GBT brought Fiber communication services to many of the businesses in 2018. The businesses that switched to GBT’s Fiber services have consistently voiced praise about GBT’s reliability, price, and the level of customer service they have received compared to what they had experienced from their previous communication provider. GBT General Manager commented, “As business customers have become familiar to GBT’s service, now the...

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

Community

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...