C Spire Launches Contest To Bring Fiber To The Home In Mississippi
By Jotham Sederstrom September 30, 2013 2:00 pm
reprints
Regional wireless service provider, C Spire, is continuing to bring high speed Internet to rural communities.
The Mississippi-based company announced last week that it would bring its “ultra- fast” 1 Gbps fiber optic Internet connection to select communities in its local service area, with even more to follow. But the company is rolling out their plan starting with a competition – interested communities will have to send in proposals to C Spire, highlighting their interest and their ability to move quickly through the permitting process.
Looking to step in to rural communities where larger companies haven’t, C Spire has asked communities to send them information about why they’re the perfect fiber location starting September 30. The move is similar to the countrywide contest Google launched in 2010 to be one of the first cities to get its own fiber service. But C Spire says they’re planning for a “faster, deeper roll-out” than Google Fiber “for maximum community impact.”
To be chosen, C Spire will judge fiber-to-home potentials on three main criteria:
“1) A progressive, business-minded leadership that can move quickly to aid us in deployment with fast construction permitting, advantageous access to public rights-of-way, or other incentives.
2) Business terms from local government that reduce the cost of implementation and operation.
3) Sizable local demand shown in a pre-registration process.”
The company primarily provides service in the southeast US, to cities in Alabama and Georgia, among others. And C Spire promises that time is of the essence – they want to announce their chosen sites this fall and be able to launch the service as early as possible in 2014.
