About Us

Connecting the Communities We Call Home

In 2012, Bill Baker and Danny Gilbert looked out at the farms and small towns of Parker County, Texas, and saw something most people in the telecom industry didn’t: neighbors who deserved better internet than they were getting.

They started with one tower. Then another. They hired locally, built carefully, and kept their word — and word spread. Twelve years later, Nextlink serves over 100,000 homes and businesses across 12 states: Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Wyoming, Louisiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and South Dakota. We’ve invested over $1 billion in rural broadband infrastructure. We deliver high-speed fixed wireless and fiber internet, voice, and mobile services to residential customers, businesses, K-12 schools, libraries, rural healthcare facilities, higher education institutions, and government agencies.

But here’s what we want you to know before any of that: the people who answer your call, climb our towers, and show up at your door live in the same communities you do. This has always been personal for us. It still is.

Built Different. Built Better.

We’ve seen what happens when a provider oversells capacity and underbuilds infrastructure. Speeds that look great on paper turn sluggish by evening. Customer service that sounds helpful, until you actually need it.

That’s not how we operate.

Our network is engineered for resilience and built to grow. With more than thousands of active towers, a fiber backbone running 400 gigabit speeds, and next-generation fixed wireless technology providing up to gigabit service, we’ve built something we’re genuinely proud to put our name on. Our 24/7 Network Operations Center monitors every tower in real time, watching for congestion before it becomes your problem, and building ahead of demand rather than scrambling to catch up.

We are also the third-largest holder of CBRS Priority Access Licenses in the United States, with over a thousand licenses across our footprint. That means we own the spectrum that powers our network: less interference, more reliability, and a connection that works when it matters most.

More than 10,000 Google reviews averaging 4.8 out of 5 stars and an A+ Better Business Bureau rating tell us we’re doing something right. We’d like to think it’s because we treat customers the way we’d want to be treated if the roles were reversed.

A Proven Track Record of Delivery

Nextlink’s growth has not been accidental — it has been earned.

We were the largest awardee of funding under the FCC’s Connect America Fund Phase II program, and we completed every single commitment. Then we were awarded $429.2 million through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund to bring gigabit broadband to over 206,000 rural households and businesses across 11 states.

We take those commitments seriously. Not because a regulator is watching, but because there are real families on the other end of every promise we make.

The Team Behind It All

Nextlink’s leadership team brings together decades of experience across telecom, finance, and regulatory affairs with backgrounds at Goldman Sachs, KPMG, Ernst & Young, AT&T, T-Mobile, the FCC, and PayPal, among others. That combination of financial discipline, regulatory expertise, and operational intensity is rare in rural broadband, and it’s one of the core reasons Nextlink has scaled where others have stalled.

But what actually drives this company isn’t resumes. It’s the technician who reschedules his Saturday to make sure a customer’s install goes right. The NOC engineer who catches a problem at 2 a.m. before anyone loses service. The customer service rep who stays on the line until it’s fixed.

That’s the culture Bill and Danny built in Parker County. It’s the one we protect — in all 12 states.

Let’s Grow Together

Nextlink is actively expanding its footprint through strategic acquisitions and partnerships. If you’re an ISP, electric coop, or government parter within or adjacent to our 12-state service areas, we’d genuinely love to talk. Reach out directly to corporate@team.nxlink.com and someone from our senior leadership team will get back to you.