Watch Communications has acquired West Central Ohio Internet Link (WCOIL), an ISP that focuses on central Ohio. Financial details of the Watch Communications West Central Ohio Internet Link deal were not disclosed.
WCOIL, which is based in Lima, OH, has an interesting backstory. The company was founded in 1995 by Mike and Barb O’Connor with modems mounted to their basement walls. It grew to more than 2,000 customers and is a provider of Internet services, business telephone services, managed IT, cybersecurity, business and residential security and fire systems and other services.
Mike O’Connor will head up Watch’s new services division that eventually will bring all of WCOIL’s services to Watch Communications’ residential and business customers.
“We are excited to welcome WCOIL employees and customers into the Watch Communications family,” Watch Communications President and CEO Chris Daniels said in a press release about the Watch Communications West Ohio Communications Internet Link acquisition. “We will build on the strong foundation of value-added services WCOIL has established in the Lima region and use that to expand offerings to all of our customers.”
Watch Communications, a subsidiary of the Benton Ridge Telephone Company, serves several states in the central U.S. The company won more than $52 million in the 2018 Connect America Fund (CAF) II auction.
Watch has made several other recent acquisitions including Beyond Media Networks, an Illinois-based wireless internet service provider for eastern Illinois and western Indiana; Sit-CO, a fiber and fixed-wireless broadband solutions provider based in Evansville, Indiana; and Q Wireless, an Internet Service Provider in Kentucky that includes ConnectGRADD, Owensboro Online, QKY, and Community Connect..
In June, the company – which has been a member of the Microsoft Airband initiative since July 2019, announced that it will work with rural electric cooperatives to bring broadband to customers in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and Kentucky.
