American Family Online (www.afo.net) supports family values. And it certainly doesn’t mind a good value when choosing its broadband communications provider, either

Founded in 1998, American Family Online (AFO) is one of America’s original national filtered Internet service providers. The growing company helped pioneer new Internet filtering technology and services, which effectively blocks harmful or objectionable content from reaching the computers’ users. “We’re trying to fight the rapidly growing influences we see that run contrary to the family values both our company, and our customers, support,” said Stephen Ensley, director and one of the founders of AFO. “Our company is committed to setting the standard for quality filtered Internet service in the industry, and our employees are committed to taking care of the AFO customer family.”

So it was perfectly fitting that AFO would seek a communications provider it could rely on not only for the technology it needed, but also for the dollar value and local support it required to help the company grow and fulfill its mission. That’s where Cox Business stepped in.

“Prior to partnering with Cox,” said Ensley, “we had several other providers, and we were not satisfied at all in terms of service or response. Like a lot of smaller businesses, we’re trying to build and grow by making good business decisions, by not spending too much, and by choosing the right partners. We saw Cox Business as such a partner.”

AFO listed three reasons it went with Cox: First, Cox provided the local support, headed up by Bernice Howard, the general manager for Cox Business in Pensacola. Second, going with Cox provided access to fiber-based service, which gave AFO the scalability and capacity it needed to expand the business. And third, Cox provided AFO the best combination of price, product and support to meet its needs and budget.

With Cox Business, American Family Online feels it has the best product and the best price in Internet service. AFO leases Cox’s fiber backbone and resells it via carrier services.

With a robust suite of services from Cox, AFO is better able to meet its goals for growth and strong plans for the future while maintaining the best value in terms of dollar per megabits.

“AFO is now serving over 34,000 communities nationwide,” Ensley said. “And Cox is serving one happy customer in AFO.”