Board of Supervisors approves franchise agreement with Mississippi-based telecom provider that sets the stage for the county to become first in state with Gigabit Internet access
Canton, Miss. (April 23, 2015) – Madison County took the first step this week in its bid to become the first county in Mississippi to bring next-generation, lightning fast Fiber to the Home broadband Internet access and related services to residents in some of its unincorporated areas.
The Board of Supervisors approved a franchise agreement with the telecommunications and technology services provider on Monday that sets the stage for the state’s sixth largest and highest per capita income county to potentially participate in the ground-breaking program.
Two of the county’s largest cities – Ridgeland and Madison – already are part of the program, which offers consumers ultra-fast Internet access 100 times faster than the average broadband speeds available elsewhere in the U.S. and related Super HDTM TV and home phone services.
More work needs to be done before the county will be officially accepted into the program. A final decision will be made later this year.
There are several unincorporated areas in the county as well as other larger neighborhoods and subdivisions that are likely to be interested in the game-changing services, according to Supervisor John Bell Crosby, who is a leading advocate for the next-generation technology.
“We’re excited about taking this initial step with C Spire and about the prospects of becoming the first county in the state to bring this revolutionary technology to homeowners and families,” said Crosby, who lives in the Northbay subdivision and has already completed an online interest form.
Suzy Hays, senior vice president of Consumer Markets for C Spire, said Fiber to the Home is a transformative technology that can serve as a platform for technology investment, economic growth and job creation. “Every day, more Mississippi consumers are getting the chance to experience tomorrow’s technology today,” she said.
C Spire turned up commercial Gigabit Internet and related services for its first residential customers in Quitman, Ridgeland and Starkville last year and has engineering and construction underway in Clinton, Corinth and Jackson with initial service activation scheduled later this year. The city of Madison was added as the 7th program participant last month and is working to qualify its first areas as part of the nation’s only statewide Gigabit fiber initiative.
About C Spire
C Spire is a diversified telecommunications and technology services company that provides world-class, customer-inspired wireless communications, 1 Gigabit consumer Internet access as well as a full suite of dedicated Internet, wireless, IP Voice, data and cloud services for businesses. This news release and other announcements are available at www.cspire.com/news. For more information about C Spire, visit www.cspire.com or follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/cspire or Twitter at www.twitter.com/cspire.
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