![]() ![]() As cooperatives, this is our chance to invest back in our communities to help them thrive and grow. “Everyone should realize how important this is for the community. “I would say to anyone just starting out, spend the time necessary to educate your board about the need,” Kelton said. ![]() Service will initially be available to those in co-op territory, with plans to eventually expand outside the territory for communities that need it. The MidSouth EC project to offer high-speed internet, phone and TV service officially kicked off phase 1 in late 2019 and members will begin receiving service in 2020 from the co-op’s wholly-owned subsidiary MidSouth Fiber Internet. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Broadband ReConnect grant of $6.18 million to help offset the network costs. As an added bonus, Conexon partner Jonathan Chambers’ expertise in regulatory and funding helped secure for MidSouth EC a U. Our vendors have to be partners and Conexon very much is.”Ĭonexon was subsequently commissioned to help finish the design of the smart grid as well as provide network design, engineering, make-ready and construction management support. “We felt the Conexon study fit well with our cooperative model. “We had talked a lot to others in the space and really liked what we heard about Conexon,” Kelton said. MidSouth EC initially contacted Conexon to produce one of the studies at the recommendation of a fellow co-op. Entergy is an asset to the City of Huntsville by providing abundant electrical power to the city's citizens, industries, and. Entergy is an integrat ed energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. In July 2018 the MidSouth EC board commissioned an exploration of a FTTH option and several studies. Electricity services for the City of Huntsville are provided by Entergy and Mid-South Synergy. That planning evolved as the co-op recognized the growing community need for broadband. rcovington (AT) midsouthsynergy (DOT) com. Like other cooperatives, MidSouth EC’s initial focus was on bolstering its own communications and adding efficient smart grid capabilities to its electrical infrastructure. Buy, sell or lease this Mid-south Electric Cooperative, Inc. “We realized we needed to build our own infrastructure so that we had access for emergency and communications when we needed it,” MidSouth EC General Manager and CEO Kerry Kelton said.įast forward a decade of exploring multiple technologies – radio, microwave and others – assessing need, conducting feasibility studies, and the co-op landed on fiber as the solution of choice. Hurricane Ike, which struck the Houston, Texas area in 2008, was catalyst that launched a multi-year journey that has culminated in MidSouth Electric Cooperative deploying a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network for its 30,456 members.Īs residents began to evacuate during the hurricane and frantic phone calls to check on loved ones took over the airwaves, the cellular network was soon overloaded and the co-op was unable to access the network for its own vital internal communications. ![]()
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