Do you like treasure hunting movies? A rag-tag group of kids finds an old map in an attic that leads to a pirate ship, or an invisible message is discovered on the back of the Declaration of Independence launching a search for an ancient cash of riches.

As a kid, I loved Indiana Jones and his adventures (except for the snakes) in exotic lands searching for long-lost relics while battling the forces of evil (we will get back to them later).

In one scene, Dr. Jones is teaching a lesson to his students at the University of Chicago and at the end of the lecture, he specifically tells them that “X” never marks the spot on the map. With all due respect to Indy, that’s not always true.

I know what you’re thinking, how does an Indiana Jones reference translate to an internet company? Stay with me. It’s an adventure. I will get you there.

In my role with Wisper Internet, I get the chance to talk to a lot of people and elected leaders of towns, counties, and entire districts of states.

As we talk about how Wisper is helping theirs and other rural communities stay connected to reliable internet, I always show them maps. See where I’m going with this?

Those maps show tower locations specific to their areas and pinpoint the exact locations in their communities where Wisper is providing quality internet to residents. In this case, “X” truly does mark the spot.

Wisper is humbly confident with our network and our “dots on the map.” It’s a no-nonsense, undeniable way to show where Wisper has existing infrastructure and it proves that Wisper is there and already improving life in a lot of neighborhoods.

As an ambassador of Wisper, I’m more than proud to show these maps and our X marks on them. They represent 20 years of Wisper’s commitment to connecting people to the world.

They also show that Wisper has done the work in the infrastructure, people, and experience to keep promises and commitments.

Now, let’s get back to the “forces of evil.” If you had a choice between dealing with a company with proven dots on the map, small-town roots, and employees who care about their customers, or a faceless, national corporation, who would you choose?

In many small communities, large internet companies come in and make promises they will never keep. They may have maps, but they don’t have dots on them. Promises like burying cable into communities and low-cost products and customer services.

It costs between $25,000 and $100,000 per mile to bury cable to a community. Then they must connect that cable to your home. Think they are not going to pass that cost on to you? Or the more realistic outcome is the big companies will realize they can’t make enough money on the project, so the small town gets forgotten and was basically lied to.

Wisper Internet can construct wireless towers, or use existing water towers, grain elevators, and other elevated structures for a fraction of the cost of burying lines, and we connect to your homes through the air. We keep our promises to small towns. In the last part of 2021, Wisper launched 68 new towers across four states. Those towers serve more than 204,000 households in 63 individual communities.

Moving forward in 2022, Wisper has plans for 230 new construction projects, which means as many as 20 new towers a month are being built in or near communities just like yours. Even more dots on the map.

Wisper is homegrown internet, and we care about small towns because that’s where we live too. We may not have a cool hat or a bullwhip, or be searching for the Ark or the Grail, but we do follow a map every day.

The X’s we care about are our customers, present and future, and the towns they live in.