Fiber cables are being installed throughout Monroe and Lowndes County

MONROE COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – If there is one thing that COVID has taught us, it’s the power of a good internet connection.

While some counties are still working on getting stronger service, others finally are online.

“It’s really a necessity now,” Barry Rowland, General Manager of Monroe County Electric Power Association, said.

From working from home and online learning to simply streaming your favorite shows, it’s no surprise that faster internet is needed to handle it all.

Fiber cables are the answer.

“Most people in the rural areas just don’t have that type of speed. You know, and you see a lot of buffering when you try to watch TV with streaming services and that kind of stuff, of download or upload you know, big files. This day and age, you know, is so much digital and so the need is there for the speed,” Rowland said.

Monroe County Electric Power Association saw the need. Barry Rowland, the general manager, said more customers wanted the service.

“A lot of people that had some type of service wasn’t satisfied so we did a survey, a mail-out survey to all of our members before we go into the business to make sure it was a viable venture,” Rowland said. “And, you know, the members showed that there was a need and so that’s when we decided to form the pulse fiber and provide it through our membership.”

However, it’s not as easy as flipping a switch. Rowland said connecting people with fiber takes time.

“You know, they’ll see us hang the fibers on the poles and they’ll think ‘Well they’ll probably be here next week to hook us up’. And, we wish it was that fast but it’s really not. Quite a few steps but it does take several months after the fiber goes up,” Rowland said.

In each area, fiber huts, which hold all of the hardware, have to be in place. They are the source of the internet.

“Will set a fiber hut, we’ll put the equipment in it and you know we’ll install the fiber on the fiber on the poles and we do it by substation, so it depends on where that customer’s power may come from,” Rowland said.

As fiber huts begin to light up, workers can begin splicing the fibers throughout the entire neighborhood, starting with the closest neighborhoods all the way to the furthest.

“If the fiber goes by your house, we’re not just hooking up that house that we just passed, like I said. We build a whole circuit, splice it all before we light it up, then we test it,” Rowland said.

The entire process takes about 6 months. And, Rowland said clients tell him they are ready.

“We’ve had even customers call wondering you know how soon they might get it, internet, because, with their job, they can work from home or whatever their situation may be. But they just didn’t have fast enough internet because you know, a lot of students are taking
classes from home and they’ve got these videos and big files and so it takes a strong internet service,” Rowland said.

For our viewers in Caledonia, a fiber hut was set up on Flint Hill Rd, and can expect fiber internet access in a few months.