Business at the Speed of Light

The choice between living in a small town and a big city is often a question of trade-offs. Many city dwellers sacrifice lower living costs, wide open spaces and peaceful surroundings in exchange for business or employment opportunities. But with the working world increasingly shifting online, that equation is changing. For many, if the right technology and resources are available, they can do their job or run their business from

Emporia has had a technological advantage over most cities since 2012. That was the year 1 Gbps (gigabit per second) fiber internet began rolling out to local businesses. It was one year after Kansas City got 1 Gbps access. It was two years ahead of Las Vegas, Nevada, and three years ahead of Austin, Texas.

How was Emporia launching high-speed, high-bandwidth fiber internet in a community this size ahead of most major metropolitan cities? What did Emporia have that so many other places didn’t?

Emporia had ValuNet FIBER.

More specifically, Emporia had the partnership of visionary and innovative local entrepreneurs Rick Tidwell, Stormy Supiran, Steve Sauder, and Bobbie Agler, the founders of ValuNet FIBER.

The four were partners in the 1980s and 90s in long-distance telecom provider, Valu-Line. Over time, they sold the business and went on to separate projects. In 2011, they came back together to create something new.

“Fiber technology had started to become a buzzword,” said Jelinda Watts, Director of Customer Care for ValuNet FIBER. “Everybody knew of Google Fiber. Rick thought, why can't we do that in Emporia, Kansas? We need to be able to offer that here. We need to figure out ways to bring in more industry. We need to figure out how we can better serve the residential population, the schools, the city and the county.”

Launching something of this scale required investor support. Almost all the investment capital came from Emporia community members.

Just as the community demonstrated its commitment to the company, the company has been adamant about serving the community. ValuNet FIBER has excelled because it can offer what the big-name providers can’t — tailored service from a customer care team, technicians and staff who are part of the community they serve.

“We truly care about creating solutions,” said Watts. “We create business solutions. We don’t just offer products A, B, or C. We will tailor our services to what the business needs. If an industry wants to come to Emporia, we will build for them. I think that’s what sets us apart from the T-Mobiles and AT&Ts of the world; our local presence and our willingness to be solution-oriented, not cookie-cutter.”

ValuNet Fiber was built on the principle of being a leader in the field. To this day, it delivers the highest broadband speed, bandwidth, reliability and quality found anywhere in the world right here.

Visit Valunet FIBER at myvalunet.com and follow them on Facebook @Valunet.