Aligned corporate values and mission creates a win-win for customers and employees
Kirkland, Washington (June 7, 2022) – Ziply® Fiber today announced an agreement to acquire Eastern Oregon Net, Inc, better known as EONI, one of Oregon’s longest serving and most respected internet service providers. EONI’s primary offerings are fiber internet, fixed wireless and voice solutions for residential and commercial customers in Baker, Union and Wallowa counties. The acquisition is scheduled to close later this year, pending regulatory approvals.
“Ziply Fiber is a Northwest company that’s here to simplify and elevate the connected lives of the people in the communities where we live and work. We believe that simple, easy access to fast and reliable internet is fundamentally important for families and businesses,” said Harold Zeitz, CEO of Ziply Fiber. “So, when we looked around the Northwest and saw what Jeff and Kelly had created at EONI, it was no surprise to us to learn that they also believe in ‘The Internet Done Right!’. Our values were aligned years before we chose to make our joining forces a reality.”
“We’re very proud of what everyone at EONI has built and accomplished over the past 26 years,” said Jeff Crews, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at EONI. “We’re even more excited about our future together with Ziply Fiber. Their commitment to service and to expanding access to fiber in the Northwest is unmatched and we’re proud to be joining fin that effort.”
Ziply Fiber has announced new fiber construction projects in more than 80 towns across the Northwest since it began its aggressive fiber expansion efforts in the summer of 2020.
“Our goal is to find a way to bring fiber to as many people as possible as quickly as possible, whether that’s by building, upgrading, partnering or acquiring,” added Zeitz. “We also expect that EONI’s expertise in fixed wireless will be beneficial to us as we continue to grow.”
Current EONI customers will not see any immediate changes to their service or working relationships while the companies plan to work through operational details in the months to come. When the acquisition closes, the Ziply Fiber and EONI network architecture will be merged to not only deliver greater redundancy and reliability, but also the fastest residential fiber internet in the Northwest, through Ziply Fiber’s multi-gig 2- and 5-gig service tiers.
Ziply Fiber has committed to invest more than $500 million to build an advanced, 100-percent fiber network to both suburban and rural communities across the Northwest that have been underserved when it comes to internet access. The company has been actively building fiber across the Northwest since June 2020 and has plans to build and deploy new fiber-optic cables, local hubs, new offices, and new hardware to run the network as part of hundreds of projects across its 250,000-square-mile footprint.
About EONI
Established in 1996, EONI is one of Oregon’s earliest Internet Service Providers. EONI is based in La Grande, Oregon and primarily serves business and residential customers in Baker, Union and Wallowa counties. EONI is proud to offer “The Internet Done Right!”™ – EONI’s high speed Internet access delivered over fiber-optic and wireless connections. Other services include business and residential voice, business phone systems, website hosting and domain registration. When customers contact EONI, their questions are answered by staff located in eastern Oregon who have detailed knowledge of the company’s services. The EONI network is designed, maintained and regularly tested by staff who live and work in northeast Oregon.
About Ziply Fiber
Ziply Fiber is local in the Northwest, headquartered in Kirkland, Washington, and has major offices in Everett, Washington; Beaverton, Oregon; and Hayden, Idaho. Most of Ziply Fiber’s executive team, which consists of former executives from AT&T, CenturyLink, and Wave Broadband, either grew up in the Northwest or have spent the better part of 30 years living here. That local ownership and market familiarity is an important part of the company mindset and culture. Ziply Fiber’s primary service offerings are Fiber Internet and phone for residential customers, Business Fiber Internet and Ziply Voice services for small businesses, and a variety of Internet, networking, and voice solutions for enterprise customers. The company also continues to support Ziply Internet (DSL) customers and its TV customers in Washington and Oregon. A full listing of products and services can be found at ziplyfiber.com.
Media Contacts:
Dan Miller, Curator PR for Ziply Fiber Jessica Christopher, Curator PR for Ziply Fiber
206-979-4055 610-945-8615
[email protected] [email protected]