Port LaBelle families finally get reliable internet after years of broken promises

PORT LABELLE, Fla. (WINK) — Families in Port LaBelle say they were promised internet and cable when they built their homes, but years later, they're still waiting.

Mary Northam came to WINK Listens in LaBelle hoping to bring change to her neighborhood. When she and her husband Ed built their house in Port LaBelle in Hendry County, they were told that cable services and internet would be available.

"When we built the house, they said we would have cable services, you know, internet, everything," Northam said. "It wasn't. Literally, it's satellite internet or nothing. We have Starlink. That's $130 a month."

Northam says when the weather is bad, she loses everything. The unreliable connection forced her to quit her work-from-home job.

"I had a work-at-home job, you know, it was the internet, you know, doing customer service, and my internet's not stable enough, so I had to let that job go," Northam said.

Fixing the internet situation would allow Northam to work from home and contribute to the household while being there for her daughter, Emi. That's why the Northams chose Port LaBelle—they thought it would be a great place to raise their daughter.

WINK News reporter Amanda Hall typed Northam's address into multiple providers and found that cable and fiber aren't available there.

Lou Elliott is the CEO of Streamline Internet. The company uses wireless towers instead of burying cable, technology that can reach rural areas where traditional internet lines don't exist.

"Our first set of towers is live now in Felda, over in Fort Denaud, downtown Labelle and now here in Port LaBelle," Elliott said. The service officially went live on April 1, 2026.

How wireless internet works

"All our infrastructure is purpose-built just to bring the internet to the home. These radios are only used for that," Elliott said. "We're much closer to the home than satellite is, which means we don't have some of those complications, like rain disruptions or cloud disruptions."

This project is being supported, in whole or in part, by federal award number SLFRP0125 awarded to the State of Florida by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

Port LaBelle resident Todd Bottoms has been testing the service for the last three months. He says the speed allows him to stream multiple devices at once without buffering.

"It's fast. We can stream multiple devices at one time. The movies don't buffer," Bottoms said. "And the fact that I'm a small business owner, that I run my business out of my house, it also helps me with my invoices and printing quotes and working on bids for customers."

Fixed Wireless vs. Satellite Internet: Which Is Better?

Hall returned to the Northams with the news. She told them the service uses a small receiver at the house that connects to nearby towers.

"I'm blown away," Mary Northam said.

Mary Northam called Streamline immediately after Hall left. She sent a video to Hall of crews installing the antenna the next day.

Northam reports she's happy with the service and the price. The company says plans typically run between $55 and $105.