While we’ve already given you a couple reasons why you should choose a local internet service provider, we wanted to talk about why that choice is so important. Though we could go on and on, the choice to support a local ISP boils down to two key points: it’s better for you and your community and it encourages a healthier, more ethical national marketplace for Internet services.

Sure, national companies have the benefit of brand recognition, but that often comes at a logistical cost. For instance, the larger the ISP’s service area, the more time it takes to pinpoint the source of any problems that inevitably rise. A local ISP has the benefit of nearby technicians who are ready to go if there’s a service outage and the relatively small service area makes it easier to isolate these issues. National ISPs might take hours — even days — to properly diagnose an outage which is not only an inconvenience for average consumers, but wasted money for businesses who rely on these services.

Moreover, if you move to a new address just outside of town, you might not be able to stick with your usual national ISP. Local ISPs are better equipped to handle and provide service to these areas since they’re just a couple minutes away. A local ISP might not have the range of a national competitor, but they’re usually much more concentrated in their smaller service area so that you still can get Internet access. Of course, we can’t forget that by going with a local ISP, you’re supporting another local business who has a greater stake in your community than a national one.

But don’t let their size fool you. Supporting a local ISP could also have profound effects on the national scale. Like any industry in the United States, small businesses dominate the field. In the Census Bureau’s Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs in 2016, of the 5.6 million employer firms in the U.S., a whopping 99.7% had fewer than 500 workers; scaling it down, firms with fewer than 20 workers made up 89.0%. In turn, since Q1 1993 to Q3 2016, just under 62% of net new job growth came from small businesses. 

Though small businesses are massive drivers of economic growth, they’re also catalysts for innovation as they try to outmaneuver much larger competitors. These innovations are often driven by what the market wants. In the case of Internet, these demands are often better customer service, better pricing and service options, a greener impact on the Earth and developing technologies that use less resources, and net neutrality (or, in other words, keeping the Internet an equal field so that small businesses and entrepreneurs can still compete with their massive competitors) — an issue we’ve talked about in greater depth last year.

We know that change can be jarring, especially when it comes to your Internet connection. But come talk to us and see what we can offer your household or business. You might be surprised how great your neighborhood ISP is.