LightStream recognized as a 2020 Smart Rural Community Showcase Award Winner by NTCA-The Rural Broadband Association.

What is a Smart Rural Community?

The Smart Rural Community (SRC) is an initiative of NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association. SRC comprises programming relating to and promoting rural broadband networks and their broadband-enabled applications that communities can leverage to foster innovative economic development, commerce, education, health care, government services, public safety and security and more efficient energy distribution and use.

SRC hosts educational events for communications and non-communications professionals, including government policy-makers; administers an award program that invites and reviews applications of rural broadband providers for certification and recognition; and provides resources to rural broadband providers to assist their achievement of goals promoted by SRC. Smart Rural Community also publishes original research and white papers that investigate issues relating to rural broadband deployment, adoption and use.

Brad Zellers, Town Manager
Brad Zellers, Town ManagerWinamac
“Because of access to gigabit speed internet, Winamac provides its residents with educational and economic opportunities on par with those in the most connected regions of America.”
Cathy Gross, Mayor
Cathy Gross, MayorMonitcello
“The city of Monticello salutes LightStream for its hard work to enable our residents to fully participate in today’s connected society.”
Brent Gillum, CEO
Brent Gillum, CEOLightStream
“Our initiative started in 2010 by constructing fiber optic lines to our local hospitals. IU Health White Memorial Hospital in Monticello and Pulaski Memorial Hospital in Winamac have the fastest and most reliable connection available…Since then, we have installed more than 600 miles of fiber in Pulaski and White Counties to develop a network that delivers endless opportunities. Rural broadband has never been more popular, and we take great pride in bringing economic development to our area.”
Shirley Bloomfield, CEO
Shirley Bloomfield, CEONTCA-The Rural Broadband Association
“As we all grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic last year, our SRC members led the charge to ensure that their communities stayed connected during this crucial time,” said Bloomfield. “The 2020 Showcase Award Winners are truly the best of the best who went above and beyond to serve their communities. I want to congratulate LightStream for winning the 2020 Showcase Award, and also thank them for the work they have done to keep small-town America connected.”

Broadband powers smart rural communities across the USA.

And now - you live in one!

Learn More

@ smartruralcommunity.com

$10,000

Per Customer

Our Investment

Serving a very rural area with small populations and spread out houses means its costs about $10,000 to connect each customer to our network.

1 Gig

That's 1,000 Mbps!

Northern Indiana's Fastest Network

When it comes to the internet, no one beats the speed, bandwidth and reliability of our fiber-to-the-home network.

Connecting Hospitals

IU Health White Memorial and Pulaski Memorial

Our First Fiber Mile

Our very first fiber miles reached two hospitals at opposite ends of our service areas in Monticello, IN and Winamac, IN.

First Responders

White County Sheriff's Department

Enhancing Protection

The Sheriff’s Department has used LightStream’s fiber service for some time and recently increased their speed to enable their use of body cams.