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Tuesday, February 16,2021 ®Ijt Tieralb <©a?Ettf 3A
Fiber internet provided by Southern Rivers Energy
FROM PAGE ONE
how important reliable
internet access is to
employers, both exist
ing industries and those
being recruited, and their
employees.
“The pandemic made
it abundantly clear, if
it wasn’t clear before,
that dependable inter
net access is vital to the
employers who sent em
ployees home to work,
educators and students
who are trying to keep up
through virtual learning
and entrepreneurs who
want to build a home
based business. There
is anecdotal evidence
that companies poised to
grow are looking outside
major metropolitan areas
for a variety of reasons,”
Oxford said.
Those industries
kicking rural tires will
definitely be checking to
see if the locations they
are considering have
sufficient high speed
internet access and good
cell phone service. That
is not always the case in
rural areas.
“The availability of a
good workforce is still
the number one concern
for employers making a
move but dependable
internet access and ad
equate bandwidth, which
they are accustomed to
having in their existing
locations, can be a major
challenge for smaller
communities trying to
keep up. Rural communi
ties like ours, which are
close enough to financial
centers, outstanding edu
cational institutions and
airports should be on
the radar of companies
which prefer a lower cost
of doing business. How
ever, the lack of broad
band and bandwidth is a
challenge to our chances
of success in recruiting
such projects,” Oxford
continued.
Vast areas of Lamar
and its surrounding
counties define the term
‘digital divide’ by virtue
of having slow or no in
ternet access - a complex
problem those in govern
ment have not seen fit to
address until recently.
“People in the metro
areas are out of touch
with rural internet
deficiencies in Georgia.
This project is certainly
a need in our county and
the school system will
certainly partner to move
this forward,” Wilson
said.
The big questions
associated with the initia
tive are simple ones:
When and how much?
“Coordination and
preparation for the
network are already
underway, but right now,
Conexon is navigating
the FCC and Georgia Pub
lic Service Commission
application process to
receive the funding won
in the FCC’s Rural Digital
Opportunity Fund Phase
1 auction. In this earli
est stage of the project,
a start date has not yet
been determined but
make-ready work is the
first step. SRE’s existing
infrastructure has to be
made ready to accom
modate fiber in addition
to the electric wire and
other attachments cur
rently on the poles. We
will continue to commu
nicate all milestones and
new information with our
membership frequently
and consistently.” the
cooperative’s market
ing director Erin Cook
concluded.
SRE to provide high-speed fiber internet for members
Southern
fevers Energy
A Touchstone Energy* Cooperative
Southern Rivers
Energy has announced a
formal partnership with
Conexon, a full-service
broadband consulting
firm, that will provide
high-speed internet to ev
ery SRE member across
its nine-county service
territory.
The announcement
was made alongside
Central Georgia EMC at
the State Capitol last
week. Both electric mem
bership cooperatives
(EMCs) will partner with
Conexon to design and
build a fiber network that
will strategically serve
two purposes: provide
smart-grid capabili
ties to improve electric
service and reliability,
and provide fiber-to-
the-home (FTTH) high
speed internet to every
EMC member through
Conexon’s newly formed
internet service provider,
Connect.
This partnership
allows SRE to build a
future-proof electric net
work that will help their
communities thrive for
decades to come, while
indirectly filling the need
of providing fiber-to-the-
home (FTTH) for SRE
members.
“The majority of the
areas we serve have no
access to quality, reliable
internet service. That
changes today,” says
Michael McMillan, the
cooperative’s
CEO. “We
know a fiber
infrastructure
is a significant
investment,
but we also
know our
communities
are worth that invest
ment—in the infrastruc
ture and resources
necessary to encourage
growth. Electric coopera
tives brought rural areas
electricity in the 1930s
and early ‘40s when no
other company would.
The current internet
crisis is the 21st century
version of that.”
SRE, headquartered
in Barnesville, serves
more than 20,000 billed
accounts in parts of nine
counties, including Bibb,
Coweta, Crawford, Lamar,
Monroe, Meriwether,
Spalding, Pike and Upson
counties.
The project will
provide new broadband
service to more than
15,000 unserved loca
tions where, currently,
there are no options for
connectivity. Southern
Rivers Energy will invest
approximately $53 mil
lion to construct more
than 2100 miles of fiber
that will strengthen their
electric grid and improve
reliability. Conexon will
invest a total of $6.5
million in electronics
to provide broadband
service to all of SRE’s
members. SRE will own
the fiber and lease excess
capacity to Conexon
which has agreed to
serve every SRE member
with fiber-to-the-home
internet speeds up to 1
gigabit per second. The
internet service will be
powered by EMC fiber,
but Conexon Connect
will provide the retail
service to homes and
businesses, managing
account set-up, customer
service, and billing.
“We are confident that
we found the best part
ner in Conexon and the
best business model that
will allow us to continue
focusing on our core mis
sion of providing reliable,
affordable electric ser
vice while Conexon uses
its expertise to provide
quality high-speed inter
net to all of our members
at a cost they can afford,”
said McMillan.
Details are still being
finalized, including a
construction timeline but
coordination and plan
ning for the network is
already underway. Visit
southernriversenergy.
com or follow them on
Facebook, Twitter or
Instagram for the latest
broadband news.
About Conexon
Conexon works with
Rural Electric Coopera
tives to bring fiber to the
home in rural communi
ties. The company is
composed of profession
als who have worked in
electric cooperatives
and the telecommunica
tions industry, and offer
decades of individual
experience in business
planning, building net
works, marketing and
selling telecommunica
tions. Conexon offers
its electric cooperative
clients end-to-end broad
band deployment and
operations support, from
a project’s conception
all the way through to
its long-term sustainabil
ity. It works with clients
to analyze economic
feasibility, secure financ
ing, design the network,
manage construction,
provide operational sup
port, optimize business
performance and deter
mine optimal partner
ships. To date, Conexon
has assisted nearly 200
electric cooperatives,
nearly 50 of which are
deploying fiber networks,
with more than 150,000
connected fiber-to-the-
home subscribers across
the US. The company has
secured over $1.3 billion
in federal and state fund
ing for its clients.
About Connect
Connect is the newly
formed internet services
provider (ISP) arm of
rural fiber broadband
design and construc
tion management leader
Conexon. The subsidiary
was formed to operate
and manage cooperative
and investor-owned fiber-
to-the-home networks.
Connect leverages Con
exon’s decades of co-op
operations, fiber-optic
design and construction,
telecommunications, fed
eral and state lobbying
and customer experience
management expertise to
successfully launch and
operate projects.
The Connect ap
proach is to work ex
clusively with electric
cooperatives to launch
and deploy high-speed
fiber-optic networks
- the gold standard of
communications trans
mission - enabling them
to offer world-class fiber
broadband to 100% of
their members.
MCMILLAN
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Barnesville, GA 30204
VOTE!
Paul Kunst
for
Chief Magistrate Judge
Your choice matters!
Make your choice known at the polls!
• Long-time Lamar resident and property owner
• Graduate, Lamar County High School, 1984
• Graduate, Gordon College, 1987, Computer Science
• Graduate, University of Georgia, 2011, Business Administration
• Honors Graduate, John Marshall Law School, 2016
• Admitted to the Georgia Bar, 2017-present
• Practicing attorney in civil and criminal cases in the Middle Georgia area since 2017
• Self-made local business owner for nearly 25 years
• The ONLY self-made businessman and practicing attorney in this race!
The right training. The right experience.
The right choice for Lamar County.
Early voting starts February 22!
Election Day is March 161
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