Meridian Community Meeting

Laughter, chatter and the fresh smell of barbecue wafted through the Community Room of United’s Meridian office as the first of 25 members arrived.

The attendees were the co-op’s guests of honor for an informal community meeting geared at keeping members in the loop when it comes to the achievements and challenges the co-op currently faces.

Though United CEO Cameron Smallwood came prepared to cover a multitude of topics ranging from the growth and progress of the high-speed internet project as well as the energy price outlook for the state of Texas, members were most interested in when fiber optic service would reach their homes.

After one member asked when she would get United’s high-speed internet at her home, Smallwood delved into the overall state of the project, now in its fourth year. The co-op recently connected its 25,000th member, he said, and the service currently passes about 63 percent of the members, offering them accessability, and this year’s budget for network expansion stands at about $35 million.  

Though more remains to be completed, Smallwood said much ground has been covered since the project began in 2020 following a 92 percent “yes” vote from the membership to proceed with the buildout.

The original plan to provide members in the western part of the territory with wireless high-speed internet had to be scrapped after technicians discovered wireless test towers deployed in the area only provided 35 percent of the coverage it was promised to cover in the initial plan.

Rather than provide members with a substandard service, United’s board of directors voted to provide the area with the same fiber-to-the-home service provided in more densely populated areas of the territory. That change meant an increase in budget from the initial $210 million to $350 million.

“If we were going to stay on wireless, you would already have wireless by now,” he said. “About 60 percent of you waiting to get internet would have gotten it. But I don’t think you would have been very happy with it. You’d be throwing things at me right now, because I’d be telling you, ‘Hey, we’re done,’ and you’d be saying ‘Hey, I can’t get it at my house. It doesn’t work.’ Wireless wasn’t going to be a good solution, so we’ve shifted to this all-fiber process. We’re moving through that as quickly as we can financially do it.”

The change to provide fiber to everyone increased the time to completion by two to four years and increased the budget from $210 million to $350 million, he said. And while the co-op is still building and has a plan to cover everybody that needs service in the most rural areas with fiber-to-the-home, United has slowed the process in some areas as it applies for grant funding from the federal government to help defray costs to the membership.

“There are all sorts of rules, and I’m not going to bore you with that,” he said. “The most rural areas of our territory are the only areas where we have a chance to get some federal funding, and that’s going to be a benefit for all the members of the co-op. If we go and build it before the grant decisions are made, we won’t get the money. So, we’re sort of cherry-picking the areas that we think we can get grant funding and holding off on those right now in the hopes that we can get some federal funding to help the overall membership out by not spending cash or adding more debt. You may have asked ‘Why are we not doing this area, or why are we not doing that area?’ That’s why. We’re hopeful to get some federal funding to offset the costs.”

“The good news is that when you get the fiber, it’s going to be a product that lasts basically your lifetime and your children’s lifetime. It’s going to be a very good product that’s going to last a long time and provide you with as much speed as you could ever imagine.”

Smallwood also covered the ever-increasing price of energy in the Lone Star State. Referring to a page of charts he handed to the group, he explained how United’s energy rates (especially those of the currently-full community solar plan) are some of the lowest.

The regular rate, which stood at 14.01 cents on the day of the Meridian meeting, stood well below other retail electric provider’s, which averaged between 16.18 cents and 19.17 cents. Referring to another line graph that showed price volatility over time, United’s electric rate has stayed the same since the co-op switched to Centerpoint Energy as its energy provider while other REPs have gone up, dropped, and then climbed past United’s rate.

“The takeaway here is the blue line is us, and we’ve been flat during the volatility,” he said. “While everyone is going crazy with the market prices going up, our rates have been stable. So that’s been a benefit to all of you with how we’ve structured things lately.”