As Midco wraps year of upgrades, leadership offers preview of what’s to come

This paid piece is sponsored by Midco.

Faster, smoother internet service took an even bigger step forward in 2024 than Midco had anticipated.

“I feel really good about the progress we’ve made with our Fiber Forward initiative, both from the perspective of upgrades and expansion,” said Ben Dold, Midco’s president and chief operating officer.

“We upgraded well over 100,000 homes and businesses this year, which is our biggest year yet, and I think it reflects our approach to continuously improving while making sure we’re maximizing impact for our customers.”

Midco is committed to upgrading 100 percent of its system by 2028 – and is solidly on track, Dold said.

“This means faster speeds and greater reliability for businesses and residential customers,” he said. “At the end of the day, speed doesn’t mean much if it’s not reliable, so we pay close attention to latency, jitter and the smoothness of your connection.”

As Midco reflects on its key initiatives, the numbers are impressive. Achievements for the year include:

• Upgrading fiber connections for 102,000 passings in 58 communities.
• Expanding or extending fiber to 30,800 passings in 112 communities.
• Surpassing $6.1 million in Midco Foundation grants given since 1981.
• Ranking as the 10th largest multiple system operator in the U.S. — and earning the Cablefax Top Ops Multiple System Operator of the Year award.
• Racking up more than 1,700 team member volunteer hours.
• Gifting $16.5 million valued in public service announcements.

“We have a lot of momentum, but technology continues to advance within our industry, so we’re taking advantage of opportunities to pivot as they arise and new technology becomes available.”

While 2024 focused on launching “beyond gig” speeds, 2025 will lift up what Dold calls “symmetrical gig” – ensuring that your upload speeds are as robust as your downloads.

“We’ll implement new technology at scale next year as we see more increase in upstream utilization,” he said. “So we want to make sure we have more capacity there. You see this at work whether you’re uploading content in the workplace or sending data while gaming.”

Along with its cutting-edge fiber and wireless services, Midco continually is evolving its video offering.

“We’ve transitioned from legacy video to IP-delivered MidcoTV,” Dold said. “We’re well over half-done with that initiative. We have a rich history in video, and we’re continuing to invest in that space and bring more interfaces and functionality.”

Midco also continued to build on its commitment to the more than 400 communities it serves.

“We take a lot of pride in partnering with local nonprofits and city leaders to lift up our communities,” said Paige Pearson Meyer, vice president of corporate communications.

In the past year, “some immediate needs came up in the Sioux Falls area,” she continued.

A Midco Foundation grant helped address immediate needs at the community’s iconic Leif Ericson YMCA camp, which was damaged by flooding. Midco also recently supported the Lincoln High School band’s trip to march in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

“When kids living at the Children’s Home Society needed a pick-me-up, our team members hosted an ice cream social,” Pearson Meyer said. “Over the last 93 years, Midco’s commitment to our communities hasn’t wavered.”

At Midco, community relations is a collective effort. Team members across the five-state footprint have a voice in the company’s foundation and elevate the causes that are key in their communities.

“This input allows us to respond quickly as needed,” Pearson Meyer said. “Our process for reviewing and awarding grants is honed, and yet we’re flexible should the unexpected happen and we need to assist a nonprofit partner outside our grant calendar.”

In Sioux Falls, the team has settled well into its new downtown offices at the Lumber Exchange building, where much of the corporate team now is located.

“Our team is enjoying the space and enjoying downtown – walking to the food trucks, heading to the park, and a lot of our large company meetings have been downtown, so that’s made it really easy to bring people together,” Dold said.

Additionally, Midco made upgrades to its offices in northwest Sioux Falls “to do a lot of brightening it up, cosmetic changes, to make sure it functioned really well as team members came back in a more hybrid environment,” he said.

“There’s a high level of energy and collaboration going on across the company, so it’s been good. We thrive on connections, internally and externally, and we want to foster that feeling of belonging.”

Looking ahead

In 2025, look for Midco to upgrade an additional 115,000 homes and businesses across its footprint while adding about 30,000 new homes and businesses and launching products both for residential and commercial customers.

“We’re in the midst of many modernizing systems initiatives, including better interfaces to really unlock the future potential of what AI is going to bring,” Dold said.

His own expanded role — he became president Jan. 1 — now includes overseeing IT, technology, project management, legal and government relations, in addition to operations, sales, marketing and strategy.

“We have such a great team of leaders at Midco with so much experience here,” he said. “I look at my role as being a steward of the legacy we have here while really focusing on supporting my teams in executing their goals and bringing collaboration around our shared vision.”

That vision includes some big growth opportunities, including potentially launching a mobile service.

“The No. 1 item on the list is mobile,” Dold said. “We’re really digging in on the possibility of launching a mobile service. We’ve seen a lot of success from larger industry players and an evolution in the space where convergence can be a value add. So we’re looking at how we come to market with a mobile product that produces a great experience and meaningful value.”

 Another growth area: data centers, specifically the emergence of hyperscale data centers, where tech giants are looking to build.

 “We’ve been very involved here in Sioux Falls and in North Dakota,” Dold said.

“We have a robust fiber network that can support these. The data centers can be the size of three football fields and three stories high, so they have a lot of computing needs, especially looking toward next-generation AI.”

The overriding priority, though, continues to be positioning Midco to offer a best-in-class customer experience.

“We know if we execute efficiently and effectively, that’s the recipe for the best customer experience,” Dold said. “Customers don’t care how we do what we do behind the scenes; they just want it to work well.”