A Minnesota-based internet service provider for trailer parks is beginning to ramp up its services in Las Vegas.
Kwikbit Internet on Thursday launched its internet services to the Carefree mobile home community, located in northeast Las Vegas near Nellis Air Force Base. This is the 28th RV park the company has launched in the United States and the fourth in Nevada, according to Kwikbit.
Kwikbit’s internet upload speed is one gigabit per second and costs $50 a month with no contract, according to Pete Buchner, Kwikbit’s vice president of marketing. Cox offers a one-gigabit-speed internet package for $99 a month, according to his website.
Kwikbit is able to offer lower prices because the company has lower infrastructure costs, Buchner said. The company connects to existing fiber optic lines and rents the services to the companies that own those lines. It then transmits internet signals from the fiber lines through equipment installed in mobile home communities.
Kwikbit already operates in two other Las Vegas trailer parks, where it began serving last year, and went live in another Reno community in February.
Here are the other RV parks that Kwikbit operates in:
– El Dorado Estates, 4525 W. Twain Ave., Las Vegas
– Pueblo del Sol, 3751 S. Nellis Blvd., Las Vegas
– Skyline, 7900 N Virginia St., Reno
Kwikbit focuses on serving mobile home communities because their designs are low-rise structures that are close together, allowing them to access a large number of customers in one area, Buchner said. He also said that many internet providers are not investing in bringing high-quality, fiber-based internet options to mobile home communities.
“It’s only economically unfeasible for them to invest in fiber up to the homes in communities of 200 or 300 properties,” says Buchner.
There are no plans to expand Kwikbit’s services outside of mobile home communities, and Buchner said there is plenty of room to operate in this market alone.
The Manufactured Housing Institute estimates that nationwide there are 8.2 million mobile homes, sometimes called manufactured homes, housing 21.2 million people.
“We think there’s a lot out there for us, we just want our share,” Buchner says. “It’s a huge untapped and, to be honest, neglected market.”
Kwikbit has been operating nationwide for two years and has found that mobile home communities served by it increase rents and reduce the number of people leaving home, Buchner explains. He estimates that 15 to 20 percent of residents initially sign up for Kwikbit’s internet service at launch, with the number slowly growing as more residents are referred to the company.
The company plans to reach 100 mobile home communities by the end of the year. According to Buchner, the company will focus its growth in several centers in the United States, such as Las Vegas, Phoenix, Dallas, northern California and central Florida. Buchner did not provide details on when Kwikbit will expand to other mobile home communities in Nevada.
