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Special Report with Brit Hume { November 16 }
2010 Chamber Annual Meeting
 
Home > Economic Development > Wichita Metro Profile > Telecommunications

Telecommunications & Utilities

For years, Wichita has been globally recognized for our highly advanced communications infrastructure. Whether your employees are working from home or the office, our region offers a seamless network for all of your information transfers. Six long distance landline carriers have chosen to establish local points-of-presence here, with hundreds of employees maintaining the Wichita area network. A sophisticated infrastructure, combined with our location in the Central Time Zone, puts Wichita at the top of the chart for communications capabilities.

Telecommunications Infrastructure

Unique telecommunications characteristics:

  • Nearly all of Wichita's business areas are equipped with fiber optic and are hosted by three competing networks (Cox Business Services, SBC and TelCove).
  • A ranking by Intel in 2003 put Wichita in the top 15% of the most "unwired" metro areas in the nation.
  • All services are available in Wichita - from traditional switched and centrex-based dial tone services to self-healing SONET networks, frame relay and Advanced Intelligence Networks.
  • In 2001, Yahoo Internet Life ranked Wichita 40th among U.S. cities in web usage (the only city on the list with a population under one-half million).
  • It typically takes only one to two weeks for business broadband installation, with all types of access available, including dial-up telephone modems to high-speed cable modems, DSL, wireless broadband and satellite.
  • Five competing long distance landline carriers are stationed in Wichita - AT&T, Gabriel Communications, MCI, Sprint and Wiltel, with one long distance point-of-presence (Sprint PCS).
     

Electricity

Large commercial-industrial rates are generally in the 4.5-6.0 cent per kwh range. It is not necessary to qualify for economic development incentives to obtain such a rate. Providing more specific rate estimates requires information such as total kwh consumption, load factor (8 vs. 24 hour per day operation for example) and determination of equipment ownership (rate often lower if customer owns transformers, etc.). 

Provider Westar Energy
Fuel Source Coal - 62%
  Natural Gas - Fueled Oil - 28%
  Nuclear - 10%
Capacity 6,000 Megawatts
Reserves 1,080 Megawatts
Reliability 99.976%
  outages generally occur in residential (non-business) areas

 

Section Highlights:
  •  The Greater Wichita Economic Development Coalition (GWEDC) provides one-stop project assistance to businesses interested in expanding and locating in the area.
  • As a public-private partnership, GWEDC works with companies to maximize the advantages of being in the Wichita area, by providing one-stop for project management that mobilizes all available resources including site information, growth and expansion incentives and other resources as required.
  • GWEDC markets the region to targeted industry sectors throughout the world with a focus on the region’s manufacturing excellence, skilled workforce, supplier network, research capacity, skilled training opportunities and operational affordability.
Contact Info
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Vicki Pratt Gerbino
VP - Economic Development
Email
316.268.1140
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