East Mississippi Electric Power Association’s Board of Directors voted recently approved a fiber-to-the-home broadband pilot project. The $10.5 Million project is in conjunction with proposed state funding through the CARES Act. Preliminary work on the project may begin as early as July. Construction of the fiber system is expected to begin in October with plans to build 340 miles of fiber over 12 months. EMEPA continues seeking grant funds through the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) to provide funding for additional service through the remainder of the cooperative’s service territory. Results from the RDOF process are expected to be announced in October 2020. Costs for a fiber-to-the-home project range from $22,500 to $35,000 per mile of installed fiber along existing distribution feeders with the projected total cost over $100 Million. Securing available grant funds is crucial for a project of this magnitude. If RDOF grant funds are secured and EMEPA is able to move forward with broadband throughout its service area, the projected timeline is four to six years to bring fiber to every area of EMEPA’s service territory. “At EMEPA, we believe greater broadband availability in our service area would benefit our members substantially,” says EMEPA CEO Randy Carroll. “The pilot project positions us to move forward with providing fiber-to-the-home broadband service across our service area as we refine plans and continue to seek a solution that is beneficial to the members we serve.” EMEPA is an electric distribution cooperative serving more than 37,000 families and businesses in Winston, Kemper, Lauderdale, Clarke and portions of surrounding counties. In January 2019, former Gov. Phil Bryant signed the Mississippi Broadband Enabling Act, removing a 1942 regulation that prevented electric cooperatives from offering anything other than electricity to their members. Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley lead the way on the legislation and the idea of copperatives offering broad band to confront the issues of the “digital divide” in Mississippi. “Nine of Mississippi’s 25 electric co-ops are in the process of building fiber to the home in their coverage areas,” said Brandon Presley, northern district commissioner of the Mississippi Public Service Commission. Another three co-ops are in the planning stage, and six more have expressed interest in moving forward if the Mississippi Legislature allocates money for high-speed Internet service from the $1.25 billion the state received through the federal coronavirus relief package.
