High Speed Family

Life moves fast for the Waddell Family, and now so does their internet.

On the rolling hills of Erath County, seven miles northeast of Stephenville, nestled amongst the scrubby junipers and native grasses, sits the Waddell family homestead, a six-acre oasis and home to Jolena, her husband, Bobby, and their two sons, Trey (14) and Trevor (9). The family lives far away from many big city amenities, including, until recently, high-speed internet.

Before the Waddell family became United’s 25,000th high-speed internet subscriber, they lived with a slower and less reliable DSL internet connection. Before that, they used their phones as hotspots, an even slower option that also used up too much of their cellular data plan. The couple’s search for better internet began during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Bobby said the family had to find a better solution so that they could function in their jobs and at school.

“Going into COVID, we realized we needed some internet support,” Bobby said. “I think we got it the week after everything shut down, and the DSL was the only service that was provided in this area. We were in a spot where satellite didn’t work at all. So, we had the one wired option, and that was the fastest service they offered.”

The Waddells represent a large segment of the rural population that lacks access to sufficient internet service. The digital divide—the gulf between those with access to reliable high-speed internet service  and those without—disproportionately affects rural residents and communities, making it a challenge for rural folks to have the same high-quality service as their urban neighbors.

United has worked to level the playing field for rural schools, businesses and residential members, such as the Waddells, bridging that digital divide, says Chris MacIntyre, United’s vice president of internet services.  

“Connecting 25,000 members is a tremendous milestone for United and our membership,” MacIntyre said. “There’s still a lot of work to do to bridge that digital divide. We have our foot on the gas for the remainder of the members who lack adequate internet access and have been patiently waiting.”

One Family with Many Needs

Some might describe Jolena as a bit of a Renaissance woman. Not only did she earn her doctorate degree in animal sciences from Purdue University, but Jolena also claims the mantle of mother, farmer’s daughter, college professor, researcher, geneticist, quilter, rabbit breeder and associate provost & associate vice president at Tarleton State University (Tarleton)—a position where she oversees student academic success and achievement. United’s high-speed internet offers her the ability to keep up with all the interests she has, she said, and the new experience changed the game for her and her family.

“I upload a lot of sports videos of my sons playing,” she said. “I used to set the videos to upload before I went to bed because it usually took about six or eight hours. The last time I did it, it took two minutes on our new internet. That was exciting.”

Raised on a farm in Cross Plains, Jolena grew up raising and showing animals. Her early interest and experience with animals led her to study animal sciences at Texas Tech University, where she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees before attending Purdue for her doctoral degree. That love of the agrarian life influenced her desire to pass down that experience to her boys.

“Both of our boys have raised Californian show rabbits, and so we have expanded our operation over the last few months,” she said. “We have about 20 rabbits out there right now in different stages. I grew up on a farm. So, being able to provide our kids a similar experience with those life lessons that come along with raising animals has been special.”

Along with a climate-controlled rabbit hutch, the Waddells have Rhode Island Red, Leghorn, Bantam and Easter Egger chickens who provide the family with an abundance of eggs, enough so that Trevor Waddell says he’s going to sell the excess at his roadside stand.

Bobby Waddell also works at Tarleton State University as the executive director of development, raising funds and increasing recognition for the university’s quickly growing enrollment. Like Jolena, Bobby shares similar rural roots, having grown up on a farm in Anson. High-speed internet has contributed to more productivity and better communication with university donors — something that he considers an essential part of his job at Tarleton.

“In my job, I communicate a lot,” Bobby said. “With better internet, I get faster emails and faster downloads of big files that people send me. I’m able to access things quicker and easier. Before it would just spin and spin, and now it’s just a matter of fractions of a second and I’m able to download, view a file and send it back.”

Universities have to stay nimble in today’s world, he said. He understands the importance of staying connected and responding quickly to the needs of alumni and students.

“Tarleton is one of the fastest growing institutions in the state and one of the top 10 in the nation,” Bobby said. “That’s impressive. It’s important to stay connected and to be accessible. Historically, you think of institutions as slow-moving ships, but it’s important to respond to those evolving needs quickly. The new internet will help me stay in contact, respond to meetings and download documents in a timely manner.”

The couple’s 14-year-old son, Trey, already imposing at 6-foot-4-inches, has a natural ability and interest in basketball. He said he uses the newfound internet speed and reliability to replay game footage, keep track of his stats, play video games online with his friends and make short work of school assignments that used to take a lot longer.
“I have an older computer,” he said. “Sometimes it takes a while to load stuff up and it was really painful with our old internet. But now my computer is basically brand new. So much faster.”

Trey said the faster internet speeds have made downloading schoolwork onto his school iPad easier. Tasks that used to take hours now take just a few minutes.

Trey’s 9-year-old brother, Trevor, shares openly on a variety of topics, relaying many colorful anecdotes that his family has described as “Trevorisms”—a fun description they’ve come to call his many pithy sayings. Interested in a broad spectrum of scientific and colorful topics, Trevor uses the improved internet speed to do everything from watching YouTube videos about sequoia trees to compiling ideas on Pinterest for his 4-H projects.

Trevor talked excitedly about making tiny beds for his stuffed animals, an idea  he says he found on the internet.

“I made quilts with my mom to go on top of them and pillows,” Trevor said. “I made mattresses for them. One of them was for Harry Potter, one of them was blue polka dots and the other one was a tiger.”

Full Steam Ahead on Fiber

Installing high-speed internet for the Waddell family represents the culmination of much effort on the part of United’s internet team. Clay Turner, United’s outside plant manager, says that the cooperative has installed more than 7,000 miles of internet fiber cable to United’s ever-expanding network, adding more every day and bringing fiber internet to parts of a high-speed internet desert.  

“It has taken a lot of planning and execution to get us where we are now,” Turner said. “It has been a 100-percent team effort between United  and its contractors to accomplish the numbers we have over the last four years.  We know our members who have it, love it, and we know the ones who don’t have the service yet cannot get it soon enough. Rest assured, we are moving as quickly as we can to accomplish that goal.”

United CEO Cameron Smallwood said that providing high-speed internet to rural areas fits in with the cooperative’s history of serving rural communities. United’s geographic service area encompasses approximately 4,200 square miles in north central Texas, making the job of extending out fiber internet a daunting task.  

“Getting high-speed internet to members like the Waddells, who previously had no access to high-quality, fiber internet, is part of United’s mission and history,” Smallwood said. “Serving rural communities with internet, just like we did in the past with electricity, is part of who we are. We are pleased to name the Waddell family as United’s 25,000th internet subscriber and hope that we can continue to expand our network to serve others just like them.”