EVANSTON — After purchasing Avicom (KDIS.net) this spring, NGL Connection has increased its workforce and service coverage. 

“The stars aligned, and we jumped on it,” Maggie Jones said. “... It’s part of our mission to expand into most of Wyoming.” 

And this was a big expansion — within the space of a few months, NGL Connection has opened a new office space, grown its workforce by 45 percent and is now servicing Kemmerer, Diamondville and Opal in addition to LaBarge, Marbleton, Big Piney and Evanston (including Hilliard Flat, outer areas of Fort Bridger and the like). 

Jones said the company started renting its new office, just a few doors down from its main hub, in December and moved in completely in February. She also said they hired 12 employees within 30 days, which brought a lot of stress with interviews, selecting the right employees for the company and training. She said the training also spanned every area, since each of the four departments — finance, tech, operations and marketing — has at least one new employee. 

All the changes have brought NGL Connection’s staff up to 26 employees (25 of those working out of the Evanston office), and as of last week, the company is serving 2,080 customers just on the Internet side.

The company started out in 2006 with just three employees. 

Jones said NGL Connection also does remote-managed services, which is part of the company’s growth. Remote-managed services mean that the company manages computer security from afar, preventing computers from breaking down, taking care of updates, monitoring viruses and malware and preventing most ransomware.

Joy Bell said that NGL Connection has more than 100 devices on the remote-managed service, including business and residential customers, and it also does computer repair and sales. 

“I would say that it’s new and exciting as well as scary,” Jones said. 

Bell added that growth spurts like this always involve a risk, and companies have to learn a little more each time. What makes NGL Connection different, though, is that it provides internet through the air rather than through wires. That makes it ideal for rural areas that companies based on wire service are unwilling to serve because of the expense or lack of return. Furthermore, the company can build its infrastructure at a much less expensive rate than wired companies, Bell said, meaning that although it is still expensive, it is essentially “pennies on the dollar.” 

“The business is primed to expand. It provides services in a niche that, quite frankly, is quite underserved in rural areas,” Bell said. “It provides a wonderful ... [service] in Wyoming.” 

She said that NGL Connection thrives in areas with big open spaces and no trees, and Jones said rocky areas are not as big an obstacle as trees are to good connections. 

“NGL can see return on investment where other companies couldn’t,” Bell said. 

She continued, saying that NGL can get good speed but is also working to keep the speed up — and Jones added that the company is doing a major overhaul of its network infrastructure. 

“I think that’s what I find most meaningful about us as a company,” Jones said, “that we’re able to help people in areas that otherwise would never have Internet [so they don’t] live in the Stone Age.”