Ritter Communications today announced a $5.4 million infrastructure project that will bring the company’s RightFiber service to many neighborhoods in the Arkansas communities of Rogers and Lowell. Ritter Communications launched its RightFiber-branded residential fiber offerings in 2021, the name reflecting the company’s “Right by You” pledge to its employees and customers.
RightFiber provides up to 5 Gbps internet, TV and telephone service to homes across portions of Arkansas and West Tennessee. The Rogers/Lowell infrastructure project follows the brand’s expansion into Centerton in September 2023. Additional Northwest Arkansas expansion is expected to be announced in the upcoming months.
Those expansions and the 5 Gbps service is quite a progression from the company’s humble beginning over 100 years ago. That’s when founder Ernest Ritter installed a small telephone switch in the back of his general store to connect the store, the house, his ice plant and other businesses in his small hometown of Marked Tree, Ark, former company CEO Alan Morse told Telecompetitor in an interview late last year.
Morse is now executive chairman of the company.
Neighbors asked about getting something similar, and a business was born. The company continued to grow, using its own resources to fund expansion. However, the continued advancement of telecom technology and cost of providing modern services for its customers meant the company had to eventually start looking elsewhere for additional capital.
The search for a private equity partner started in 2019, with Grain Management eventually selected. Now in its fifth generation of ownership, E. Ritter and Company still holds a minority stake in Ritter Communications.
“Ritter Communications has served the Rogers-Lowell business community with the most advanced fiber internet services for the past three years. We are excited to increase our dedication to the area by bringing Rogers and Lowell residents our RightFiber broadband service, offering internet speeds up to 5 Gig,” Heath Simpson, Ritter Communications CEO, said in a prepared statement.
“We are committed to providing our customers with the high-quality internet and world-class customer service we’re known for.”
