Keegan Johnson showed on a big screen the Lions a commercial it commissioned from SWARK.Today that contrasts the way parents once taught children with the way it is with new technology, when the teachers now are often the children for the parents. 

Then Johnson showed a Power Point slide show explaining the benefits of fiberoptic cable against other ways of accessing broadband and showing the facilities and equipment that supports the technology. He emphasized that uploading and downloading speeds will be the same, so that the lowest cost tier of services, 100 by 100 Megabytes per second connections for $54.95 a month for residents and $74.95 for businesses who get more prioritized problem-solving response will upload at the same speeds as they download. 

The highest speed coverage available is 1 Gigabyte per second upload and download, which is $99.95 a month for residents and $174.95 for businesses. 

One of Johnson’s slides revealed the number of devices using its services at the moment the slide was made was about 12,100.  These devices represent about 170 brands. 

One question that arose from a Lion attendee was whether HWL received any funds from the federal government or the state to set up its services. Russell Cornelius, Manager of General Operations at HWL said it had not. The idea for HWL offering broadband internet came after a realization of what the company was already doing. 

“We have had a fiber ring to all of our substations for years, since the mid 90s, and we just were getting more and more out there, and we were like, You know what, let's just try to provide the to our customers,” Cornelius said. 

The idea for HWL Broadband developed even further during the COVID pandemic. “When COVID hit, there were people parking around the college library trying to get internet services. So we just took it upon ourselves, issued a bond, got money, built it out. We've used our people and saved a whole lot of money. We were actually able to do this project for around $10 million,” Cornelius said. It had been projected to cost $17 million. 

Cornelius also mentioned that a broadband curriculum will be starting in August at UAHT, a fact the school’s Chancellor Christine Holt was present to confirm. Johnson said he would be the instructor for the program. “Those high school kids are getting ready to get out, get on their own. These are necessary tools that they need to make a great career out of it, just like I have, and just like so many others have with our with our department. We definitely want to make sure they have the right tools to invest back into the community,” he said.