Shentel buys cable, Internet provider JetBroadband

By: Bryan Gentry | Lynchburg News and Advance
Published: July 30, 2010

JetBroadband customers in the Lynchburg area now have a new cable and Internet service provider.

Northern Virginia-based Shenandoah Telecommunications completed its purchase of JetBroadband Holdings LLC effective Friday. Not much will change for customers immediately, said Chief Operating Officer Earl MacKenzie.

“The pricing stays the same, the service offerings stay the same,” he said. “The transition will happen over a period of time and we won’t be doing it to everyone at once.”

In the next few days, JetBroadband customers should receive a letter from the new owner, which also calls itself Shentel, welcoming them as customers and explaining the coming transition.

Customer service phone numbers remain the same, and they still will be answered at a center in Campbell County, where 45 to 50 people now work for Shentel, MacKenzie said.

In mid-August, customers will need to start writing checks to Shentel when they pay their bills, MacKenzie said. Later this year, customers will see a new bill format.

Eventually, customers will have to change their e-mail addresses from the domain name jetbroadband.com to shentel.com. “They’ll be given lots of notification” ahead of that transition, MacKenzie said.

Much of Shentel’s efforts will focus on improving service, MacKenzie said. “We’ll be spending approximately $35 million over the next two years to upgrade the network,” he said.

The upgrades would bring high-definition channels, more telephone services and faster Internet speeds. Currently, there are parts of the network that do not have those capabilities, MacKenzie said.

Customers would be given notice of any changes in prices or programming options about 30 to 60 days in advance, he said.

The JetBroadband network serves about 66,000 subscribers in Virginia and West Virginia, according to a Shentel news release.

Shentel began operating more than 100 years ago as the local telephone company of Shenandoah County. It also provides cable and Internet services in several parts of Virginia and West Virginia, and it sells wireless phone service as an affiliate of Sprint, MacKenzie said.

Shentel’s stock closed Friday at $19.48, a drop of 15 cents, on the NASDAQ stock exchange.