C Spire has reached an agreement with city officials in Jackson, Miss., to build out its emerging 1 Gbps fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) service to residential customers.
Jackson Mayor Tony Yarber hailed the agreement, calling it a historic opportunity for the city to become a hub for technology investment, generate new, high-paying jobs and provide a better quality of life for its 172,638 residents.
"Gigabit infrastructure will address so many needs in our city from education and health care to business expansion while improving home values," Yarber said.
Now that its franchise agreement has been approved, C Spire will begin hosting an online pre-registration site. Customers will need to make a $10 refundable deposit and provide credit card information when they visit the website.
Similar to other cities where it has begun building out service, including Ridgeland and Quitman, the website will feature a single large map showing Jackson city boundaries. The web page will then be updated later this month with interactive maps of the city divided into "fiberhoods" showing what percentage of residents need to pre-register to turn an area "green" and qualify for buildout of the service.
When the site is updated, C Spire said it will include progress bars for each "fiberhood" in order to help residents get a "real time" snapshot of their success in getting neighbors, friends and others who live nearby to pre-register for the service. The service provider set percentage goals between 35 and 45 percent.
C Spire began this journey last November when it selected nine Mississippi cities--including Batesville, Clinton, Corinth, Hattiesburg, Horn Lake, McComb, Quitman, Ridgeland and Starkville--to be part of the first phase of its FTTH service buildout.
After launching pre-registration in those cities last December, local government, community and business leaders have rallied residents in four of the cities (Ridgeland, Starkville, Quitman and Horn Lake) to pre-register at levels that qualified eight areas for the service. C Spire said it expects more areas in additional cities to qualify soon.
Thus far, C Spire began network construction in Ridgeland in May, while beginning the rollout in several other cities that have qualified for the service, including the entire town of Quitman.
Taking a page from Google Fiber, C Spire customers will have three service options to choose from: a 1 Gbps service connection for $70 a month; $90 a month for combined Internet and home phone; $130 for Internet and HD digital TV; and $150 a month for the entire package of all three services. In addition, C Spire plans to reveal pricing for its new home automation services line.
For more:
- see the release
Special report: Google Fiber, AT&T, CenturyLink drive the 1 Gbps game
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