FTTH Council Celebrates Inaugural “Gimme Fiber Day"

JACKSON, MS – The Fiber to the Home Council Americas (FTTH Council) along with C Spire and Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant celebrated the first annual “Gimme Fiber Day” at the C Spire campus in Ridgeland, Mississippi. To commemorate the day, C Spire executives showcased the company’s “Get Fiber First” fiber to the home initiative and the positive impact of fiber networks on education, healthcare, civic life, government services and economic growth.

During the event, Governor Phil Bryant joined FTTH Council President Heather Gold, FTTH Board of Directors Chairman Kevin Bourg and C Spire CEO Hu Meena to discuss the value of fiber and its potential impact on the state of Mississippi. C Spire also announced Batesville, Clinton, Corinth, Hattiesburg, Horn Lake, McComb, Ridgeland, Starkville and Quitman as the nine finalists of the “Get Fiber First” Challenge, a call-to-action that gave Mississippi cities and towns the opportunity to compete to be the first community with gigabit-ready fiber to the home service in the state.

“We are incredibly excited to be recognizing C Spire and the state of Mississippi during our inaugural Gimme Fiber Day celebration,” said FTTH Council President Heather Burnett Gold. “After seeing the economic, educational, and innovation benefits that FTTH deployments have brought to communities from Kansas City to the hill country of Texas, C Spire understood that they could leverage their existing infrastructure to deliver the same sort of benefits to Mississippians. It is this leadership and foresight that led us to select C Spire as our inaugural Gimme Fiber Day Award recipient.”

Joining the ranks of Seattle, and Lafayette, C Spire’s Fiber to the Home service will give Mississippi communities Internet speeds up to 100 times faster than currently available.

“This crucial upgrade will set Mississippi apart from the rest of the nation, providing the broadband capabilities necessary to future-proof our state, from our urban centers to some of our smallest communities,” said Hu Meena, President and CEO of C Spire. “Fiber deployment has the ability to revolutionize the way Mississippians access healthcare, education, public safety and government services and we look forward to watching gigabit connectivity transform the Magnolia State.”

Gimme Fiber Day will be celebrated annually—in the U.S. and around the globe—to honor the achievements of Professor Charles Kao, who pioneered the use and development of fiber optics in telecommunications, to show how fiber optics have positively impacted communities around the world and what policymakers can do to accelerate its deployment and adoption.