Madison County, Miss. Approves Franchise Agreement with C Spire

CANTON, MS – In its bid to become the first county in Mississippi to bring FTTH broadband Internet access and related services to residents in some of its unincorporated areas, the Madison County Board of Supervisors approved a franchise agreement with C Spire.

Two of the county’s largest cities – Ridgeland and Madison – already are part of the C Spire program, which offers consumers ultra-fast Internet and related SuperTM HD TV and home phone services. More work needs to be done before the county will be officially accepted into the program. A final decision by C Spire will be made later this year.

Serving Unincorporated Areas with FTTH
Several unincorporated areas in the county as well as other larger neighborhoods and subdivisions 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.

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 seventh program participant last month and is working to qualify its first areas as part of the nation’s only statewide gigabit fiber initiative.