Alan Townsend, chief executive officer of COTO Communications, said his firm focuses on providing affordable business high-speed Internet services to rural and underserved communities in Florida.

StratoComm has been delivering its communications services to developing countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia with positive results.  StratoComm recently selected COTO Communications as its first U.S. joint venture partner to meet the demand for reasonably priced high-speed Internet access and telephone services underserved communities. 

Townsend said COTO and StratoComm’s joint efforts will focus on communities throughout the Southeast corridor of the U.S. 

One of COTO’s first target areas is the riverfront community of Edgewater in rural Volusia County.

“Many rural communities in the U.S., particularly in Florida, are underserved by the telecommunications industry,” Townsend explained. “Once thought a luxury, high-speed Internet access is now an integral business tool without which underserved rural businesses and households are at a loss.”

“Our mission is to incorporate existing technology to provide sophisticated services at a cost that is affordable to individuals and businesses in those areas,” he said. 

President Obama has made rural broadband communications access a priority of his administration.

COTO Communications recently joined the University of Central Florida Incubation Program’s downtown Orlando Incubator at 37 N. Orange Ave.