LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A Minnesota-based company is bringing high-speed internet access to areas in the Las Vegas valley that big providers largely ignore.
Kwikbit Internet identifies itself as a disrupter in the industry. On Saturday, the company was at Pueblo Del Sol Mobile Home Park located between Nellis Boulevard and Boulder Highway.
“Over 22 million people live in mobile home parks in the United States of America. If it was a state, it would be the third largest state in the United States. And yet, they have terrible internet. Not on average, almost exclusively terrible internet,” Kwikbit Chief Executive Officer Joe Costello said.
The company began offering affordable Wi-Fi services during the pandemic as both children doing distance learning and employees working remotely struggled with quality internet access.
Kwikbit was at Pueblo Del Sol persuading residents to drop their current internet providers.
It offers up to one gigabyte of speeds that are equally fast for uploads and downloads. The cost is $50 a month and $20 if customers meet a certain income threshold.
That offer appealed to Pueblo Del Sol resident, Robin Jones.
“I’m on a fixed income, I’m retired,” Robin Jones said. “I’m either paying a third more, half as much more, or twice as much more, as I originally go for.”
Once a person signs up for the Kwikbit service, it usually takes staff about an hour to an hour and a half to come and install it.
Residents also do not have to make their first payment until May and there is no contract.
Some internet companies do not service mobile home parks, which ends up impacting residents like Jones.
“If they’re neglecting us as a demographic, than they’re missing out on a lot,” Jones said.
Kwikbit is currently in eight states and at another mobile home park in the Las Vegas valley.
The infrastructure bill passed by the U.S. Congress in 2021 has $65 billion invested in it for broadband funding.
Yet, Joe Costello said government agencies are too slow to act.
“No one should go without good internet today. There’s no excuse. We can make it happen today. We can make it happen very economically and very quickly. It’s not something that needs to happen 10 years from now,” Costello said.
Kwikbit does not need to install fiber optic cables. It only takes them three days to erect equipment that can hook up mobile homes with Wi-Fi.
