Executive Summary
Meriwether Lewis Electric Cooperative (MLEC), a member-owned utility serving Middle Tennessee, faced significant challenges with its broadband network, MLConnect. Frequent outages, prolonged maintenance windows, and an overly complex infrastructure hindered the ISP’s customer satisfaction and scalability. In partnership with Irby Utilities, MLConnect underwent a comprehensive network transformation, revitalizing its broadband offering with reliable connectivity, streamlined operations, and an exceptional customer experience for its rural communities.
| Introduction Meriwether Lewis Electric Cooperative (MLEC) is a utility committed to delivering affordable, reliable electricity to the counties of Hickman, Houston, Humphreys, Lewis, and Perry in Middle Tennessee. In early 2019, MLEC launched MLConnect, a wholly owned broadband subsidiary, to offer advanced communication solutions like high-speed internet and telephone services to members across the region. |
The Challenge
Despite its commitment to quality services, MLConnect faced challenges early on that impacted subscriber satisfaction and operational efficiency.
Primed only to support a 30 percent take rate by their broadband vendor, MLConnect could not handle additional bandwidth requirements when demand for their internet services soared. Combining this rapid growth with the shift to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2021, the ISP’s undersized network was quickly overwhelmed.
As a result, frequent outages and 24-hour-plus maintenance windows became the new normal, frustrating customers and engineers alike. Internally, constant negative feedback from subscribers impacted customer service representatives and overall team morale. At its worst, many gigabit-package subscribers experienced speeds as low as 2Mbps during peak hours.
MLConnect needed a big change to remedy its broadband services and meet the growing demands of its rural communities.
The Solution
Calling on Irby
MLConnect turned to material distributor and solutions provider Irby Utilities, with whom it had an existing relationship in its electric operations, for assistance with the fiber network challenges. As a leading provider of broadband solutions to electric utilities, Irby recognized the opportunity to leverage its expertise and transform MLConnect's network.
The First Visit
During an initial on-site visit, the Irby network team thoroughly analyzed the network infrastructure. This process involved validating the equipment, network operations, and overall setup against the documented configurations. Very quickly, the team found substantial issues.
“The network configuration was overly complex, with evidence of at least three different deployment methodologies used throughout,” said Jeremy Johns, Director of Network Engineering. “This created an error-prone environment that hindered MLConnect’s scalability and capacity.”
It became clear that this complexity resulted from a piecemeal approach to addressing issues rather than a cohesive understanding of the infrastructure. Over time, this reactive method introduced severe complications and potential points of failure for MLConnect.
Notably, the Irby team identified redundant traffic patterns that created bottlenecks within the network. Irby swiftly broke this “loop” with a maintenance window in the middle of the site visit, allowing legitimate traffic to pass through and users to receive better speeds.
The Cutover and Network Transformation
While removing the redundancy offered some relief, a total rebuild of MLConnect's network was inevitable. “It was virtually impossible to undo the damage done to this network. The best course of action was to overhaul and rebuild it to Irby’s engineering principles and standards,” said Johns.
The Irby engineering team then developed a parallel, “smarter” network for MLConnect and helped migrate the ISP’s existing access infrastructure and wholesale customers afterward. Since then, the two teams have successfully migrated all 16k subscribers to the new optimized network.
Results
The network overhaul delivered significant improvements for MLConnect on multiple fronts, elevating their services to new heights of performance and customer satisfaction.
Outage, Maintenance Window, and Issue Ticket Reduction
For at least three months before Irby's intervention, MLConnect had lengthy maintenance windows twice a week, every week. These windows—and downtime for subscribers—typically lasted between 4 and 12 hours but could last more than 24 hours, depending on the issue. Following the transformation, outages were minimized, and maintenance windows typically lasted an hour or less, primarily for customer migrations.
Subsequently, issue tickets also steeply declined. “Before Irby's intervention, every Monday, we would have an influx of tickets from over the weekend. These could take an entire day to work through each week,” said MLConnect Network Engineer Destin Perkinson. “Irby’s network has greatly reduced our ticket volume and provided our team with much-needed relief."
Reclaimed Fiber Assets
By implementing a more stable and efficient network design, Irby enabled MLConnect to reclaim multiple fiber lines previously dedicated to their wholesale connections. These valuable fiber assets can now be repurposed for future expansion or emergency recovery efforts.
Network Speed and Performance
With Irby's optimized network architecture, subscribers with gigabit packages can finally experience their promised speeds regardless of network traffic: up to 940 Mbps, meeting industry standards.
Complexity Reduction
MLConnects’s network consolidation took the ISP from 274 virtual local area networks (VLANs) down to just three. This change streamlined network operations, enabled more efficient resource allocation, and drastically reduced complexity and potential for human error. Additionally, it made future expansion easier for the MLConnect network team to manage in-house.
Positive Customer Feedback
The impact of these improvements was evident in the positive feedback MLConnect received. "Customer feedback before and after Irby's intervention was like night and day,” said Chad Blackwell, Manager of Systems Technology at MLConnect. “The once-constant complaints on social media turned into overwhelmingly positive comments. We are now highly recommended as the preferred internet provider on local forums.”
Integration and Automation
By transitioning to a network that requires much less maintenance, the MLConnect team can finally pursue other projects with Irby's assistance. So far, this has included capturing flow data, creating a non-pay automatic disconnect feature, and integrating with a new billing and provisioning system. Most importantly, MLConnect can fully support its nearly 50 percent take rate and expects continued growth.
Conclusion
Irby Utilities' partnership with Meriwether Lewis Electric Cooperative exemplifies the value of choosing the right broadband solutions provider. By leveraging Irby's extensive knowledge, resources, and experience, MLConnect restored its broadband network, ensuring reliable connectivity, scalability, and customer satisfaction for its communities.
"Irby's engineering team has been instrumental in achieving our goals," said Blackwell. "They listened to our concerns, established trust, and equipped our network operations for continued success."
As MLEC and MLConnect explore future enhancements and growth opportunities, Irby remains a trusted partner, committed to delivering innovative solutions that empower utilities to better serve their customers.
Irby's Technology and Communications group assists electric utilities with building, maintaining, and managing fiber networks. Our team is ready to help you optimize your utility broadband—from backbone infrastructure and network operations to full fiber deployment.