Fiber Service Comes To 4th Starkville Neighborhood

PRESS RELEASE

Starkville, Mississippi (October 24, 2014) – C Spire announced today that homeowner pre-registration exceeded the required threshold in a fourth area of the city of Starkville this week – helping it qualify for the company’s ultra-fast 1 Gbps (Gigabit per second) fiber to the home Internet service and related digital HD TV and home phone services.

Starkville’s Hiwassee fiberhood, which extends from the city center to the northern edge, reached its 45 percent pre-registration target Thursday and now joins the South Montgomery, Timbercove and Cotton District fiberhoods, which qualified earlier this year for the next-generation suite of services.

The four areas in Starkville, along with five areas in the cities of Horn Lake, Ridgeland and the entire town of Quitman, will be the first in Mississippi with Internet access up to 100 times faster than national average broadband speeds.

Construction started in June in the South Montgomery and Timbercove areas of Starkville and is scheduled to begin soon in the other two areas of the city that have qualified for the service. C Spire Fiber crews began laying fiber optic cable for last mile connections in three areas of Ridgeland in May and in Quitman in June.

“We’re pleased that the city of Starkville is continuing to show momentum and that the excitement and anticipation of Internet at the speed of light is growing there and in other Mississippi cities,” said Suzy Hays, senior vice president of Consumer Markets for C Spire. “Fiber to the home is a next-generation technology that will help Starkville and other Mississippi cities become hubs for future investment and growth.”

Starkville Mayor Parker Wiseman, who traveled around the country studying how a handful of other U.S. cities managed to gain similar technology in his efforts to get the infrastructure in his town, said the latest area to qualify helps the city’s continuing push to gain momentum and get the game-changing technology in all 10 of its fiberhoods.

“We’re really starting to see widespread progress in our efforts to become a Gigabit city,” Wiseman said, noting the addition of the Hiwassee-Reed Road-Hospital fiberhood now means approximately 40 percent of the city has qualified for the game-changing infrastructure. “We’ve still got work to do and we’re definitely not finished, but I’m excited that we have the opportunity to bring this advanced technology to more people in our community.”

Wiseman said the success of Mississippi State’s football program has helped focus attention on Starkville and the city’s efforts to become a Gigabit city. “We’re starting to believe that anything is possible and we can realize those big dreams for our community.”

Categories: Local News

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