Arkansas.Net

Late-Entry ISP Finds Success Through Quality Access

Charles Sharpe was becoming increasingly frustrated with the roadblocks preventing his business from smooth access to the burgeoning information superhighway back in 1995.

The Fayetteville lawyer visited with various Internet providers and soon found those providers were being inundated with the rush of homes and offices trying to get online. He wisely reserved the “arkansas.net” domain name when he was considering opening a web site hosting service, but by July 1996, he decided to launch an Internet service provider using the name.

Together with John Coy — a technician he spoke with at one of the providers about his frustrations — they launched Arkansas.Net with an initial sign-up of about 200 users in December 1996. Today, the company boasts about 20,000 subscribers and is available in more than 40 Arkansas cities. Arkansas.Net has 22 employees.

Arkansas.Net was one of the last ISP’s to enter the Arkansas market. Sharpe says a key to success has been a substantial front-end (and ongoing) investment in computer hardware to do away with the “hassles” associated with some Internet services — busy signals, no signal, service interruptions and unresponsive technical support.

It is important, he says, for customers to view the service as reliable and high-quality.

“We started with a $20 a month price and worked backward to figure how we could make it work,” Sharpe says, adding that the company worked to offer affordable service in underserved rural cities.

Sharpe believes the future will afford the company opportunities to offer services that make the Internet more accessible and easier to use for Arkansans. Arkansas.Net’s challenge, he says will be to keep up with the ever-changing technology to provide those services.

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