On November 10, Paulding Putnam held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the rural Paulding home of Dennis and Tammy Clark, the co-op’s first fiber-to-the-home subscribers, officially launching service and opening sign-ups across areas of Paulding, Payne, Haviland, and Scott. 
Dennis, a 34-year co-op retiree, and Tammy, Senior Director of Clinical Education for Fresenius Kidney Care (Waltham, Mass.), chose the WorkWire 1 Gig x 1 Gig symmetrical package with battery backup and managed Wi-Fi.
“This is a new era for us,” Dennis said. “We’ve always struggled on the outskirts of town. Now the speed is incredible, and the glitches are gone.”
For Tammy, a full-time remote worker for an international company, the difference in service has been life changing.
“I’m on video calls nearly all day,” she said. “Before, I’d get kicked out of meetings or files wouldn’t load because the bandwidth just couldn’t keep up. Since switching to Paulding Putnam fiber, I don’t have those struggles anymore. I can finally be fully present with my team.”
Other early subscribers are equally enthusiastic.
Joe and Ellen Sukup of Paulding, longtime co-op members since the 1960s, are thrilled to get their internet from the same trusted local provider as their electricity. 
“It’s neat that it’s already someone we pay money to,” Joe said. “We’ve always been happy with Paulding Putnam, so when they offered something new, we knew we could trust it.”
Joe now streams MySports Live games without frustrating slowdowns, while Ellen appreciates the built-in protection that blocks pop-ups and spam on her email and Facebook.
Father Aric Mericle of Paulding sees the co-op difference every day.
“It’s great knowing my internet comes from a place that’s member-focused and easy to reach if I ever have an issue,” Aric said.
With kids at home, he values the reliability for e-learning days, and he’s looking forward to using the PauldingPutnamIQ app’s parental controls to set time limits and keep his family safe online. 
The Paulding Putnam Board of Trustees approved broadband service in July 2024; mainline construction began in April 2025. Despite material delays, more than 300 miles of fiber have been completed with contractor ITG Communications. Current work is underway in the Roselm and Ottoville areas, as well as in the villages of Payne and Grover Hill, where free community Wi-Fi will be provided to community buildings and parks. Construction in Fort Jennings, Van Wert, and Convoy will follow. 
The goal is to provide service to unserved or underserved member communities, including non-member territories, when feasible, based on need and cost throughout Paulding, Putnam, Van Wert, and Allen counties in Ohio and Allen and Adams counties in Indiana. This is why completing the co-op’s online interest form is crucial to gauge need and guide engineering and network design.
“This isn’t corporate internet,” said Paulding Putnam CEO Randy Price. “This is your member-owned, not-for-profit co-op delivering fast, dependable connectivity with the same local control, fair pricing, and people-first values we’ve upheld since 1935.”
Key features that set Paulding Putnam’s fiber internet apart include:
- Direct hardwired fiber connection for rock-solid reliability
- Symmetrical residential speeds up to 1 gig, perfect for remote work, streaming, and video calls (business plans offer more bandwidth).
- Transparent pricing with no contracts, hidden fees, or data caps
- Local, friendly customer service from neighbors who live here
- Managed Wi-Fi with parental controls, device profiles, guest networks, and real-time threat blocking in the PauldingPutnamIQ app
Check your address at www.PPEC.coop or call 800-686-2357. If fiber isn’t available yet, more zones will be coming soon. Tailored plans based on lifestyle needs can be found online at www.ppec.coop/fiber.
“Having reliable high-speed internet available in places that never had it before is going to make a real difference for our entire community,” Aric said.
Joe agreed: “We knew we could trust Paulding Putnam to do it right.”
For more information, contact member_services@ppec.coop, visit www.PPEC.coop, or call 800-686-2357.