Rico customers remained online Wednesday, thanks to a deal between internet providers.

Farmers Telephone Co., the main internet provider in Rico, announced in December service would be discontinued in February. But since then, Direct Communications, the owner of Rico Telephone Co., reached a deal with Farmers to provide internet using Farmers’ equipment, said Brigham Griffin, marketing director for Direct Communications.

The 130 customers served by Direct Communications will see a change in their billing, but otherwise service will stay the same, he said.

“There was no service interruption as far as I can tell,” he said.

It was a challenging change to make in the winter, and technicians with Farmers and Direct Communications had to deal with several feet of snow, he said.

“Big thanks to our local technician Gary Gregory for putting on his snowshoes and going the extra mile,” he said.

Gregory worked mainly on customer modems and devices.

The company offers 4, 6 or 10 megabit per second DSL service, Griffin said.

The Federal Communications Commission sets the federal standard for internet download speed at 25 megabits per second.

The company plans to buy more equipment from Farmers to improve speeds for Rico customers, he said. Direct Communication also wants to upgrade the entire system to VDSL, which would improve the upload speeds for customers, he said.

Direct Communications, based in Rockland, Idaho, bought Rico Telephone last spring.

For many years before the sale, Farmers, based in Montezuma County, had provided internet to Rico. The company discontinued service to Rico for business reasons, according to a letter sent to customers.

mshinn@durangoherald.com