State of Mississippi

The activities of each project are:  

Bay Springs - TEC

This project is led by broadband provider Bay Springs Telephone, a subsidiary of Telephone Electronics Corporation, which provides internet to over 6,500 customers in Mississippi. The project will service Smith County (population 16,009). The project includes 252 census blocks that are all eligible per FCC and NTIA maps.  None were awarded RDOF funding, and all lack 25/3 service for residential customers. This area includes 1,511 unserved households, 2 businesses, 3 churches, and 1 anchor location. Five (5) blocks were descoped during NTIA review.

The Fiber to the Home (FTTH) project will construct 126 miles of fiber. Bay Springs will offer broadband service from 250 Mbps at $54.95 to gigabit speed at$79.95. The project plans to leverage existing fiber and continue building a network using a fiber to the home architecture utilizing passive optical networking (PON) technology and topology.

Bruce Telephone

This project is led by Bruce Telephone, a subsidiary of Fail Telecommunications Corporation, which has decades of experience providing voice and broadband to rural Mississippi. This project will reach areas of rural Calhoun County. The project will include 216 census blocks serving 943 unserved household and 10 businesses. Nine (9) blocks were descoped during NTIA review.

The FTTH project will construct 154 miles of buried fiber. Bruce Telephone will offer broadband service of 250 Mbps for $49.99 to gigabit speed for $79.95. The project plans to leverage existing fiber and continue building a network using a fiber to the home architecture utilizing passive optical networking (PON) technology and topology.

C Spire (Mayersville)

This project is led by broadband provider C Spire, a privately held company that provides wireless telecommunications and all-fiber broadband services to nearly 1 million subscribers across 3 states. The project will cover areas of Issaquena County and cover 120 unserved household locations, 10 businesses, including 2 anchor locations, in 34 census blocks. One (1) block was descoped during NTIA review.

The FTTH project will construct 10 miles of fiber. C Spire will offer broadband service at $80.00 for gigabit speed. The project will consist of a mix of middle-mile and last-mile connectivity of which engineering work and permitting has already begun. ln order for Mayersville to receive connectivity, a middle mile route must be constructed of approximately 10 miles. Once the middle mile is complete, last-mile connectivity will be constructed to build out the entire community. The project plans to leverage existing fiber and continue building a network using a fiber to the home architecture utilizing passive optical networking (PON) technology and topology.

C Spire (Livingston)

This project is led by broadband provider C Spire, a privately held company that provides wireless telecommunications and all-fiber broadband services to nearly 1 million subscribers across 3 states. The project will cover areas of Madison County and cover 101 unserved household locations, and 32 businesses in 33 census blocks. No blocks were descoped during NTIA review.

The FTTH project will construct 10.7 miles of fiber. C Spire will offer broadband service at $80.00 for gigabit speed. The project plans to leverage existing fiber and continue building a network using a fiber to the home architecture utilizing passive optical networking (PON) technology and topology.

CableSouth Media 3 dba SwyftConnect (Collins)

This project is led by CableSouth Media 3 The project will cover portion of Covington County and include 227 census blocks serving 1,955 unserved households, 201 businesses, and 6 anchor institutions. No blocks were descoped during NTIA review.

The project will upgrade 19 miles of a fiber/coaxial network to Docsis 3.1 technology. CableSouth will offer broadband service from 200 Mbps at $50 to gigabit speed at $89.99. Collins will be built on a distribution network will be composed of Passive Optical Network (PON) elements delivered over a Fiber to the Premise (FTTP) distribution plant. These distribution elements will include Gibagit Passive Optical Networking and 10 Gigabit XGS-PON technologies. Last Mile subscribers will be served via PON nodes scaled as appropriate to meet subscriber bandwidth demands.

CableSouth Media 3 dba SwyftConnect (Poplarville)

This project is led by CableSouth Media 3, a cable tv company operating in 6 cities in the state of Mississippi.  The project will cover areas of the City of Poplarville. The project will require approximately 46 miles of aerial fiber optic cable and offer service to 1,459 unserved household locations. Subscribers will have access to a network capable of 10 Gbps speeds.

Franklin Telephone (West Lincoln County)

This project is led by Franklin Telephone Company. The project will cover portions of Lincoln County and include 86 census blocks serving 223 unserved household locations. Forty-four (44) blocks were descoped/categorized as “transit-only” during NTIA review.

The FTTH project will construct 68 miles of buried fiber. Franklin Telephone will offer broadband service from 25 Mbps at $40 to gigabit speed at $100. FTC has existing fiber cable and vacant duct facilities along Highways 84 and 98 close to these areas that will be utilized to provide not only connectivity but also ring protection for network resiliency. FTC utilizes transport equipment capable of deploying Active Ethernet service as well as a variety of PON options, e.g. GPON, XGS-PON, etc.

Franklin Telephone (Bude)

This project is led by Franklin Telephone Company, which was founded in 1959 and is an ILEC serving approx. 8,000 subscribers across 17 exchanges in parts of 26 rural Mississippi Counties. This project will cover the town of Bude in Franklin County to build Fiber to the Home (FTTH) facilities capable of providing broadband speeds of up to 1 Gbps symmetrical and beyond as technology improves.

This project consists of 15.37 miles of buried construction in Lincoln County and will provide service to approximately 562 households, 22 business locations, and 21 community anchor institutions.

Franklin Telephone (Lower Meadville Rd.)

These projects are led by Franklin Telephone Company, which was founded in 1959 and is an ILEC serving approx. 8,000 subscribers across 17 exchanges in parts of 26 rural Mississippi counties. This project will cover the town of Bude in Franklin County as well as Lower Meadville Road in Lincoln County to build Fiber to the Home (FTTH) facilities capable of providing broadband speeds of up to 1 Gbps symmetrical and beyond as technology improves.

This project consists of 0.9 miles of buried construction in Lincoln County and will provide service to approximately 16 households, 22 business locations, and 21 anchor institutions.

Uplink LLC (Coahoma County)

This project is led by Uplink, a wireless internet service provider providing Coahoma County and the surrounding area with unlimited highspeed internet. The project will cover rural Coahoma County. The total county population is 22,124. The project will have a service area of 121 census blocks. The project will cover 984 unserved households.

The project will include 90.87 miles of fiber construction. Uplink will offer broadband service from 100 Mbps at $55 to gigabit speed at $100. The provider will be using a mix of technologies, deploying fiber to the home in areas of high density and using wireless technology in areas of low density where the cost becomes excessive to deploy fiber optics.

Uplink LLC (Clack)

This project is led by Uplink, a wireless internet service provider providing Coahoma County and the surrounding area with unlimited highspeed internet. The project will cover the Clack community in Tunica County.

The project will consist of 23.6 miles passings a total of 344 unserved households within a 1,500-buffer zone along the route. This area is incredibly impoverished. Access to high-speed internet will allow BEAM and partners to bring digital skills and accessibility programs to this community.

Uplink LLC (Fish Camp)

This project is led by Uplink, a wireless internet service provider providing Coahoma County and the surrounding area with unlimited high-speed internet. The project will cover the Fish Camp community in Tunica County.  

The project will construct 11 miles of fiber with 198 passings and offer 1 Gbps to a total of 198 unserved households. BEAM recently had a town hall meeting in Tunica and heard first-hand of poor cell phone service and people not being to call 911 for emergency services.