ABOUT CYBER BROADBAND
Cyber Broadband began as an innovative start-up company that provides wireless broadband Internet service to outlying areas that have few viable options for fast broadband Internet access. Using cutting-edge radio technology, Cyber Broadband is now able to serve rural areas with broadband Internet service.
The idea started in June 2004 when Mr. Jay Fuller, owner of Advanced Computer Solutions, began evaluating ways to deliver broadband internet to rural areas. Advanced Computer had several clients in which telephone and cable companies seemed to have no interest in providing service.
Mr. Fuller approached several personnel at an internet cafe he performed network services for, Cyber Domain, as well as several of his long time friends about the idea and the group worked together to form Cyber Broadband, Inc.
In July 2004, Raymond Pierce completed extensive research into the concept which grew out of “WIMAX” hype in magazines and press at the time – and recommended technology. The first pieces of equipment for Cyber Broadband were ordered July 21, 2004.
Extensive testing took place with this equipment during the following month as Jay Fuller and Kevin McDowell spent a considerable amount of personal time verifying the performance of the equipment and actually completed an eleven mile radio link off Hanceville Alabama’s “Stouts Mountain”.
Over the weekend of September 4th and 5th, Cyber Broadband located equipment on it’s first POP, or Point of Presence, and officially launched with it’s first install on September 8, 2004.
Additional extensive testing continued nearly immediately as weakened Hurricane Frances and Hurricane Ivan blew through our area with winds of 30-40 MPH and heavy rains. Our test customers reported few problems, so we continued forward.
During October, work began to prepare a POP near Lewis Smith Lake. This POP went online October 27, and our first customers in the Lewis Smith Lake area received broadband internet access!
During November and December, Cyber Broadband worked towards getting a good sample of customers installed in our existing coverage areas and worked to troubleshoot any problems which arose during those months. We also worked towards upgrading our “test” equipment for production equipment to increase our existing coverage area.
These upgrades were completed New Years weekend, 2005. Since the first year in 2005, Cyber Broadband has mastered the use of it’s equipment, continued to expand coverage across Smith Lake, and began serving customers in even more areas across Cullman County. Some of these areas include Battleground, Good Hope, Dodge City, Smith Lake, Brushy Pond, Gold Ridge, Welti, Holly Pond and more.
In 2007, Cyber Broadband bid on a project to install a network for several buildings on behalf of the City of Cullman as well as several hotspots available for public use. Cyber Broadband was able to win this bid – in part because of it’s wireless backbone already in place.
[ see this article ]
In early 2009, Cyber Broadband began working to expand it’s coverage in east Cullman County – launching a site to cover parts of Eva, Fairview, and Baileyton. This site was built out during the weekend of March 22-23 and provides broadband for the first time to parts of Baileyton. Cyber donated service to the Baileyton Town Hall for a period of one year.
(According to this article, no other provider of high speed internet was willing to serve Baileyton! Leave it to a local company to solve that problem…)
Growth continued in 2010 as Cyber purchased its first existing wireless network located at the Village at Blount Springs in Blount Springs, Al. Cyber worked with its former owners (Teklinks of Birmingham) to perform a seamless transition for existing Village customers.
That growth was slammed to a sudden halt on April 27, 2011, when Cullman Alabama (and many other towns in Alabama) were severely damaged by tornadoes. The transmission tower Cyber used at its core network was completely destroyed. (See this picture)
Cyber was fortunate enough to have access to other members of the Wireless Internet industry via WISPA – who worked together to get us back online in record time (See this article.)
Following the April 2011 EF-4 tornado, Cyber continued to expand its network, adding coverage east of Baileyton into Joppa AL and over into Holly Pond and Garden City.
Beginning in 2012, Cyber Broadband worked extensively with the State of Alabama “Connecting Alabama” broadband office (See www.connectingalabama.gov ) to identify other rural areas surrounding our county which may have a need for broadband. While continuing to fill coverage gaps in our network in Cullman County, we have expanded to provide service in other markets as need and demand warrant.
In 2013, demand for our service continued to increase and we began to deploy service in Lawrence County at the request of their County Commission (See this article.)
Also in 2013, Cyber purchased its second existing wireless network, formerly called Smith Lake Broadband, which provides service across Lewis Smith Lake, starting nearly where Cyber’s existing wireless network left off, making Cyber’s wireless network nearly the size of the Cullman Electric Coop’s service area.
In 2014 extensive network upgrades were performed to prepare for future expansion and additional future projects.
We have plenty of satisfied customers who are happy to make references.
We’ve worked very hard to provide this service to Cullman and surrounding rural areas and we’d love to have you as our customer.