Winbeam Inc, a Greensburg-based Internet service provider, announced it has officially completed its expansion into the northern Blair County area which includes Tyrone, Tipton and Bellwood.
The expansion work was started in mid-March and was complete last Thursday.
In addition, on the same day, the company also completed acquisition of Altoonanet, an Altoona-based ISP. Windbeam also announced it was expanding its broadband coverage in Mercer County to include the cities of Sharon and Hermitage.
“It was a very good day for us,” said John Bunce, the president of the company.
Winbeam now has more than 12,000 customers in central and western Pennsylvania. A press release from the company stated Winbeam is the largest independent ISP in western Pennsylvania and among the three largest independent ISP’s in the Commonwealth.
“Our service area in Blair County now runs from Tyrone to Duncansville and the Hollidaysburg area,” Bunce told The Daily Herald.
Winbeam was formed in 2000 and indicated its goal at the time was to bring broadband service to most of Pennsylvania not served by cable and DSL services. Winbeam owns FCC licenses covering 2.5 million households including Altoona, State College, Erie, Lancaster, Harrisburg and Reading.
Winbeam began operations in Altoona in October 2001 with a wireless broadband internet service. The expansion to Tyrone and the Altoonanet purchase has led to Winbeam being able to offer its broadband service to more than 50 percent of the households in Blair County.
Bunce noted Altoonanet’s customers can keep their email with the same domain name, enjoy the convenience of an Altoona office and still obtain the benefits of broadband internet service.
Winbeam’s other acquisitions have included Helicon of Greensburg and Coweb of McMurray in Washington County.
“There is a strong demand in non-metropolitan Pennsylvania for greater broadband service,” said Bunce. “The combination of Winbeam’s broad spectrum holdings and our technical expertise in wireless broadband enable us to serve a steadily larger part of the state population. We are focusing particularly on areas that currently do not have comprehensive broadband service.”
Plans in the coming months include standard wireless broadband service in Huntingdon County and the deployment of a generation two non-line of sight, portable broadband service in Erie County.
According to the press release about the expansion and acquisitions, Winbeam is systematically applying its wireless broadband experience to areas of the state that are presently underserved.
