C Spire is bringing its 1 Gbps service to Laurel, Mississippi-based businesses, furthering an effort to wire more of the state’s businesses with higher speed, fiber-based networking services.
Mayor Johnny Magee and C Spire executives invited over 300 local business owners to a meeting on Nov. 9 at Studio5fifty to learn more about the opportunity to get gigabit speed internet access for their enterprises starting at $200 a month.
As part of its statewide plan, C Spire will offer Laurel businesses access to 1 Gbps internet as “part of a massive technology initiative” with a goal of connecting one out of every five commercial enterprises in Mississippi to next-generation broadband.
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"We see this partnership with C Spire as one way to help us grow our local economy, create new job opportunities and improve the quality of life for everyone,” Magee said in a release.
Laurel itself has gained prominence by being featured in HGTV’s show "Home Town." The series follows the efforts of residents Ben and Erin Napier as they renovate the community’s homes.
The broadband expansion is a key part of the C Spire Tech Movement, an outgrowth of the company's 2013 FTTH program, one which is connecting thousands of Mississippi consumers in nine communities across the state to gigabit internet, digital television and home phone services.
In September, C Spire announced it will conduct “a massive expansion of ultra-fast broadband internet and wireless fiber-based fixed internet to more than 250,000 consumers and small businesses in cities and towns across the state.” The company explained that it will cover 200,000 of those customers with fixed wireless services and the remaining 50,000 with fiber-to-the-home connections.
Earlier, C Spire Business Solutions (CSBS) introduced its Advantage Fiber services program, aimed at identifying business site opportunities that are near of its fiber network.
As part of a regional database, CSBS began matching its 7,000 route miles of fiber network infrastructure with nearby business and office parks, industrial sites and other locations that are candidates for expansion or relocation by companies.