If you grew up in the Midwest, Casey’s general stores were a staple of everyday life. It’s where you would fill up your gas tank, grab some pizza, or bump into friends. These days, Casey’s is still expanding, with around 2,500 locations around the country. Over half of those locations are in rural towns with a population of under 5,000 people.
Just like ordinary people in rural areas, Casey’s struggles with broadband internet access. The US generally scores low in the area of internet infrastructure, especially in small towns, where there hasn’t been much private investment for fiber internet projects. So when Starlink launched their Business service, with availability virtually anywhere in the country, Casey’s was one of the first companies to dive in.
Starlink solves several problems for Casey’s. The obvious one is high speed internet access. Starlink Business is available everywhere in the US, as long as you have a clear view of the sky. So wherever Casey’s wants to build a new store, or improve the internet at an existing location, they know that Starlink is a great option when terrestrial providers aren’t available.
“Starlink reliably provides bandwidth, latency and loss characteristics that exceeds our minimum standards improving guest service and store operations. We even have had a flawless experience running our VoIP phone services over Starlink.”
Casey’s – Source
The other problem that Starlink solves for Casey’s is simplified billing and account management. Without Starlink, Casey’s has to form business relationships with hundreds of different internet companies, depending on which options are available at each location. That means hundreds of different account managers, and hundreds of separate invoices to pay. Sounds complicated to manage, right? But now, all 450+ Casey’s stores using Starlink are managed under a single account, with a single invoice to pay.
Finally, Starlink helps reduce construction time and costs at new Casey’s stores. With terrestrial broadband services, planning and executing installation services is often a drawn out process, costing a lot of time and money. There are permits to get, cable to pull, and all of that takes resources from multiple stakeholders. Starlink solves that issue, and drastically reduces the time it takes for a store to get internet access. Casey’s says that their typical Starlink install takes just 60 to 90 minutes, with only a single contractor involved in the process.
“When building a new store, getting terrestrial broadband to the building is always a big challenge and logistical juggling act. Dozens of representatives from several different entities must align on service availability, how and exactly where it will be delivered, scheduling site visits and construction activity and trying to keep it all on schedule. On top of that, constructions costs from the broadband companies are now commonly five figures. Starlink makes all of this go away.”
Casey’s – Source
With about 1 out of 5 Casey’s locations using Starlink, it’s an interesting case study. As individual home internet customers, we can see how Starlink is changing internet access in America. In just a few short years, Starlink has connected the entire country to high speed, low latency broadband. But as I’ve shown, it’s also happening at the commercial level, which benefits rural communities who rely on brands like Casey’s.
So the next time you pull up a Casey’s store to grab a pizza or some gas, consider that your transaction might be powered by Starlink. It’s a rural brand with a lot of history and trust, now with 21st century technology helping it keep up in this digital age.