Our story, our DNA

The Beginning

When we started HiPOINT over 25 years ago, we were a consulting company of two.

Sometime around 2003 we pivoted to Internet, launching our first building in Lincoln Park. In those days dsl was big, and 10Mbps was considered blazing fast. Our biggest competition was AT&T and Comcast, and we promoted our service by standing outside the building distributing flyer’s. We did all the installations, and answered customer calls on our cell phones. I think we enrolled like 10 people, and while not profitable from a revenue point, we learned a lot, and those 10 people probably experienced the best customer service they ever had!

Present Day

And since then we’ve certainly learned a lot. With over 15,000 customers and 40+ employees, we’ve certainly grown.

But more than that we’ve constantly adapted to meet the needs of our customers, always looking ahead to see what’s around the corner. Whether it was integrating multiple video solutions to complement our Internet, or layering on IT support services to help our users, or even developing a software solution to streamline building processes…we’re always adapting and looking ahead. And with our core Internet product itself, after heavily leveraging wireless Internet feeds to minimize costs, we made a big shift in 2017 back to fiber optic lines. Today, over 90% of our customers live in fiber optic fed buildings, some as small as 38 units! It’s a formula focused on quality over all else, and one built for today.

First Fiber Optic Building in Chicago

incorporating all we learned, we launched our first large bulk Internet building. In fact it was the first fiber optic fed residential building in Chicago.

It was revolutionary, and it was exciting to be part of something new like that. Ultimately we lost that building to a new player, a wireless Internet provider that offered rates that were unbelievably low…less than $10/unit! For them it was a marketing play, and for us, due to the costs of fiber optic lines, was something we couldn’t match. And with regret we lost that client. We also learned a valuable lesson…adapt or die.

What We Strive For

It’s nice to grow, to add subscribers, to expand our footprint. We’re certainly proud of that. But HiPOINT has never been about increasing numbers or becoming an acquisition target.

We know the space we want to be in, and it’s not with the big national players. Growth is good, but at some point growth undermines efficiency and customer service. That’s why instead of focusing on growth, HiPOINT focuses on value added services, because we want to provide a better alternative to the national players, something entirely different. We want our buildings to be an enhanced digital ecosystem where the foundational Internet service is but a means to an end…and where our support extends into the realm of helping our users get the most out of that ecosystem. That’s why we give our HiNotify system for free, and provide free HiGenius IT support, and even offer services to help the home business user thrive. We want our customers to feel special, to feel like they have an edge because HiPOINT is on their side, and that certainly is something worth striving for.