Indiana Lt. Governor: "We are proud to have a forward-thinking Hoosier company like Smithville receive this most deserved recognition."

ELLETSVILLE, Indiana - Smithville - Indiana's largest independent telecom company - has been selected by Broadband Properties Magazine as one of the nation's Top 100 Broadband Companies for 2009 and an upcoming leader in fiber to the home (FTTH). The south-central Indiana-based company joins national communications giants AT&T, Motorola, Verizon and others in the select national honor.

Citing the Smithville $90 million project to bring high-speed fiber connectivity to rural areas in Indiana, Broadband Properties editor Masha Zager called the Smithville fiber overbuild "an ambitious FTTH project."

While numerous companies are considered for the national designation every year, Zager said that the "key tiebreaker question, as always, was this: 'Will this company make a difference in the fiber broadband industry in the coming year?'" Regarding Smithville, she said, the answer is yes.

Two factors make the Smithville operation unusual: one, the decision and commitment to embark on an extensive multi-county fiber project was made months before the Obama Administration and U.S. Congress allocated billions of dollars in grants and loans for broadband infrastructure. Second, the Smithville project includes a special focus on bringing high-speed fiber optics to rural areas in Indiana, breaking an established industry tradition.

"Oftentimes rural areas are the last to receive the benefits of new technology," said Indiana Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman. "Smithville's fiber-optics project preceded the Stimulus funding earmarked for broadband, and they put their rural customers first in line. We are proud to have a forward-thinking Hoosier company like Smithville receive this most deserved recognition."

In selecting the Top 100, Zager said that the editors look for organizations that are advancing the cause of fiber to the premises in one of several ways, including how companies deploy their fiber networks. "We look for large deployments, or for innovative business plans and technology configurations," she said. The editors also look for companies that introduce innovative technologies, even if the technologies have not yet been commercially deployed. "We're always on the lookout for technologies that change the rules - by reducing early deployment costs, for instance, or making builds significantly cheaper overall," the Broadband Properties editor added.

"The Top 100 list is chosen by the Broadband Properties editors, who act independently on the basis of their own research and that of experts in the industry who advise them," said Scott DeGarmo, President & CEO of Broadband Properties.

"The honor of being chosen as a top 100 national broadband property is both flattering and humbling," said Darby McCarty, chairman and CEO of Smithville. "This designation reflects the quality of dedication and achievements of our Smithville team in bringing the best possible communication technology to the people of Indiana."

Completing its first segment of its overbuild to residential customers earlier this Spring, Smithville's cutting-edge technology will allow Smithville's customers access to some of the fastest broadband speeds available anywhere in the U.S., including a mammoth 100 Megabits per second (Mbps) access package. This high-end service is presently unmatched by any other broadband in Indiana.

According to Joe Savage, President of the National Fiber-to-the-Home Council, "Smithville's investment in a fiber-to-the-home network will pay dividends for their subscribers, not only in improved access to the Internet, but also in increased tele-work and home-based business opportunities, as well as increased tele-education and tele-health application usage."

Smithville's all-new technology platform gives customers the ability to access the Internet, voice, and web based television services at a speed much faster than currently available to most residential customers anywhere in the United States-in rural or urban areas.

About Smithville – Led by chairman and CEO Darby A. McCarty since 2003, Smithville is one of Indiana's oldest and largest independent communication companies, with its telephone division founded in 1922. A long-time champion of southern Indiana customers and a proven early adopter of state-of-the-art communication services, Smithville began converting its operations to a digital platform in the 1980s. In 2003, the company created a new commercial division, Smithville Digital, which serves up a fiber-based technology portfolio of physical and electronic services providing high-speed, reliable and secure broadband access and industrial data transport for Hoosier businesses statewide. For more information, please visit www.smithville.net. For media inquiries, please contact Michael Snyder (MEK Group) at 317-805-4870 or msnyder@themekgroup.com.