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From Stone Mountain to Athens and Suwanee to Greensboro, Walton Electric Membership Corporation distributes electric power to over 126,000 customers across east Georgia. As a utility company, it’s important for the regional co-operative to keep the lights on at their own office locations as well as those of their customers.

Much of the organization’s operations rely on cloud-based technology so internet downtime is not an option. Similarly, communication with customers can only take place when a reliable internet connection is in place. When the electricity goes out, Walton EMC needs to remain online to ensure that customer power can be restored as soon as possible. In addition, a stable connection is required to read meters and bill customers accordingly.

Andy Hill, Walton EMC’s Director of Information Technology reiterated this, “Electric power is a first line service that needs to be restored immediately during a natural disaster. Because of this, we need to have connectivity to our offices and facilities here so we can restore power and communicate with customers.”

Staying Connected in Every Situation

In an effort to guarantee this continuity, Hill contacted a telecommunications agent who recommended enlisting the services of One Ring Networks. The relationship began over ten years ago with the introduction of a 10 Mbps fixed wireless service at Walton EMC’s corporate headquarters in Monroe, GA.

This installation was the first step towards full redundancy. The circuit has since been upgraded to 150 Mbps and continues to play a crucial role in an aggregated setup that consists of load balancing and WAN failover. This setup ensures that the most efficient path for upload and download traffic is always selected.

In 2010, Hill and the Walton EMC team decided to grow the relationship with One Ring Networks by implementing additional data services at a second Georgia location. This location is supported by a 150 Mbps fiber circuit offering provider diversity and redundancy.

Two Circuits Are Better Than One

Before working with One Ring Networks, Walton EMC only had one internet connection. If that internet connection went down, it was impossible to communicate with customers.

The current intelligent setup allows Walton EMC to be prepared for any adverse situation. The high-speed fiber and fixed wireless circuits at multiple locations offer pathway and provider diversity that ensure constant connectivity to cloud-based applications. This configuration enables the organization to remain in contact with customers even when their electric power is halted by an unexpected outage.

One Ring Networks is proud to provide solutions that play an important role in this framework. As a result of the setup and Walton EMC’s focus on customer care, the company was ranked second in the nation in for customer satisfaction in the J.D. Power 2018 study of all electric utility companies.

Hill had nothing but positive comments about the solutions and the support his team receives from One Ring Networks. He stated, “One Ring Networks is one of our favorite service providers. When we call, someone answers the phone immediately. If we ever have to open a support ticket, we’re updated immediately as the status of the ticket changes. The team are very responsive – they know us and we know them so we don’t have to redescribe the services in question every time we speak to them. They’re one of the best communications providers we work with.”

Who We Are

One Ring Networks is an industry-leading provider of voice and data services across Arizona, California, Georgia, Maryland and Texas. We offer fixed wireless, fiber, hosted PBX and unified communications solutions to businesses of all sizes. To find out more about our customizable options, please contact 1-855-ONE-RING or email our team at sales@oneringnetworks.com.