Wireless Internet provider JAB Wireless rebranded the company Friday into a single national brand known as Rise Broadband.

The Englewood-based company had operated as five brands in parts of 15 states around the country — Skybeam in Colorado and other states, Communications in parts of Texas, Prairie i-Net and Digis elsewhere.

Starting Friday, though, all those other names were replaced with Rise Broadband on the company’s website, and in all its customer communications. Soon the company’s 600 trucks and its many buildings will display the new brand name and signage, too.

“The number one thing we’re hoping to accomplish is easier brand recognition,” said Jeff Kohler, Co-founder and Chief Development Officer of the company. “It’s been difficult for the greater public to understand who this company is.”

Rise has been cobbled together from 108 acquisitions of small, rural wireless internet service providers, or WISPs, since 2005. Today, the company provides Internet and digital phone service to nearly 200,000 residential and commercial customers. Its coverage territories, outside major cities, reach about 4.4 million U.S. households, or roughly 11 million people.

It kept the brand names of some of the larger WISPs it bought over the years to keep continuity for customers. Now it operates as one business and it’s mature enough to focus on consolidating its brand, Kohler said.

“After buying 108 companies out there, we’ve really hit our stride in terms of operations and running call centers and what not,” Kohler said. “It’s been the right time to able to step back and do this.”

Internally, having one brand is hoped to make operations a lot easier, too, given that marketing and other things will not have to be replicated to reflect five different names and looks.

Rise has 800 employees nationwide. About 200 of them are in Colorado, most at its operations center in Loveland, with the remainder mostly at its headquarters in Englewood.

The company isn’t plowing a bunch of money into new advertising campaigns to get its new name out there, focusing instead on making sure Rise Communications sticks with existing customers in areas where it’s been a familiar name.

Rise Broadband will be making network upgrades and improving other customer experience features, the company said.

“In the coming months, we are making a significant investment in our network to provide increased reliability and faster speeds to better deliver the communications, information, education and entertainment our customers depend on,” said Jack Koo, president and CEO of Rise Broadband.

View on Denver Business Journal

Back to Press Room