As stay-at-home orders were issued and schools announced they would be moving online in light of the coronavirus pandemic, Wilson Communications moved to ensure that students who didn’t previously have access to the internet from their homes would have free access so that they could continue their school year with the rest of their classmates.

“Earlier on in the pandemic we were urged by the FCC to pledge not to disconnect customers telephone and internet service if they couldn’t pay because of hardships caused by the economic impact of Covid-19. We wanted to go a step further and make sure that all students in our service area had access to the internet so they could join their classmates in online school activities,” said Scott Grauer, chief executive officer.

Added general manager Craig Freeman, “We have coordinated with the schools to get information on which students didn’t have the access they needed to join online classes. While we wanted to get service to everyone who needs it, in some cases it just wasn’t pos sible because there are some homes that don’t have a drop that connects them to our network.”

Because every customer couldn’t be connected in time to access the online school activities, Wilson Communications has offered use of all of the company’s public Wi-Fi hot spots and added additional hot spots in communities without an existing public Wi-Fi hotspot.

Wilson Communications will be providing free 10Mbps service through the remainder of the school year to teachers and students who didn’t previously have internet access.

“It has been a big change but it is very comforting to be able to connect with students in the midst of everything going on right now,” said Wilson High School teacher Debbie Gould.

As with all internet service providers, Wilson Communications has seen a drastic increase in demand for bandwidth during the pandemic as customers turn to streaming services and online services for information and entertainment while they are at home.

“The national average is around a 60 percent increase in demand for bandwidth,” said Brad Schiermeyer, IT manager, “We’ve seen a demand for nearly twice that.”

The company recently moved up a planned network upgrade in order to meet the increased demand and provide a better experience for internet users on their network.

Wilson Communications has also been working with local churches to broadcast church services on their local cable tv channels.

Currently the First Baptist Church of Wilson’s Sunday 10:30 a.m. service is available and the St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church of Wilson offers Sunday mass and daily mass at noon Sunday through Thursday.

“We are working with other churches and organizations to get more services and hopefully other community activities on our channels,” Mary Zorn, director of operations, said.

These programs can be viewed on Channel 57 of Wilson Communications’ cable television service.

Visit the myCommunity section of wilsoncommunications.us for updated schedules and information.