DeSoto County to get fiber-based next gen residential broadband services from C Spire

SOUTHAVEN, Miss., June 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Parts of DeSoto County and three of its major cities are the latest markets for C Spire's next-generation residential Fiber-to-the-Home program, which features ultra-fast Gigabit speed internet access, award-winning live streaming TV and premium digital home phone service.

C Spire Home Services, the unit that manages the company's residential fiber program, is beginning work this week to install the ultra-fast broadband infrastructure in the first Southaven neighborhoods with plans to expand the program to include fiberhoods in Olive Branch, Hernando and parts of the county's unincorporated area later this summer.

The company plans to turn up service to the first customers in August and will pass 20,000 homes in the state's third most populous county by the end of the year. The addition of DeSoto County and the three cities brings the number of markets participating in the company's Fiber-to-the-Home initiative to 20, one of the largest programs of its type in the U.S.

"Residential fiber is a game-changer and this revolutionary technology infrastructure promises to boost home values, broaden entertainment opportunities, help expand the local economy and improve the quality of life for homeowners," said Ashley Phillips, general manager of C Spire Home Services. "We expect to move quickly to activate these services."

"Improving our broadband infrastructure is one way we can dramatically boost the quality of life in our city," said Southaven Mayor Darren Musselwhite. "As the gateway to Mississippi, our residents and businesses deserve the best internet access, entertainment and voice communications services available today.  C Spire is helping us realize that dream."

The first customers to receive the services not only will experience a quantum leap in broadband internet speeds and capacity, but also get access to digital home phone service and the nation's first app-based, live streaming digital commercial TV service honored by the cable TV industry in 2017 as the best television technology product in the U.S.

C Spire TV delivers advanced cable TV features that consumers love in convenient and simple apps that are designed to run on popular streaming devices, such as Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, and Apple TV – eliminating the need to outfit every TV in the home with a set top box and saving several hundred dollars a year in rental fees.

The DeSoto County residential fiber program is leveraging new infrastructure additions in key areas in Northwest Mississippi to C Spire's nearly 9,000 route miles of backbone fiber optic cable that spans the state.  "Our services are future-proofed with the incredible capacity that this technology supports," Phillips said.

Mississippi Public Service Commission Northern District Commissioner Brandon Presley, a long-time advocate for advanced broadband infrastructure in the state, said he expects the 21^st century technology to transform the way homeowners live, work and play while boosting education, job opportunities and economic development in DeSoto County.  "Great internet access is critical to our success and I appreciate C Spire's continuing efforts to make it a reality here."

Jim Flanagan, president and CEO of the over 600-member DeSoto County Economic Development Council, said fast, reliable internet is central to communications, business expansion and economic development.  "This will make it easier for workers to telecommute and attractive for existing businesses to expand or new firms to relocate to our region," he said.

DeSoto County 4^th District Supervisor Lee Caldwell, who has fought for years to improve internet access for residents and businesses, said the project will involve 117 fiber hoods and cover almost one third of the county's 68,000 households.  Caldwell expects the fiber optic infrastructure to increase home values as more consumers subscribe to the suite of services and potentially lure new high-tech business investment to the region.  "We see a bright future and many opportunities to leverage this infrastructure," she added.

Recent nationwide studies have concluded that Gigabit speed fiber-optic connections like those provided by C Spire Home Services can add $5,437 (3.1 percent) to the price of a $175,000 home – about as much as a fireplace, or half the value of a bathroom.

With the addition of unincorporated areas of DeSoto County, Southaven, Olive Branch and Hernando, C Spire has rolled out ultra-fast Gigabit internet access and related services in 20 Mississippi markets, boosting overall broadband connection speeds in the state by 200 percent since 2014.  The suite of services is competitively priced and is expected to pave the way for a boom in smart home applications and innovation. 

Residential fiber is part of the C Spire Tech Movement initiative, which is committed to moving communities forward through technology with a focus on broadband access, workforce development and innovation.

To learn more about C Spire Fiber service and pricing or to find out if your home is in an area with this next-generation technology infrastructure, visit www.cspire.com/fiber.  To learn more about the C Spire Tech Movement, visit www.cspire.com/techmvmt.

About C Spire
C Spire is a diversified telecommunications and technology services company that provides world-class, customer-inspired wireless communications, 1 Gigabit consumer Internet access as well as a full suite of dedicated Internet, wireless, IP Voice, data and cloud services for businesses.  This news release and other announcements are available at www.cspire.com/news. For more information about C Spire, visit www.cspire.com or follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/cspire or Twitter at www.twitter.com/cspire.

SOURCE C Spire

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