4-County Electric Power Association’s FASTnet broadband service has grown to provide about 22,000 homes with high speed internet since installations started nearly six years ago.
The cooperative’s FASTnet broadband service plan began construction of fiber optic cable across its coverage area in 2020 to provide Wi-Fi services to customers, including those in Oktibbeha, Noxubee, Lowndes and Clay counties.
Installation across 4-County’s primary coverage area wrapped up in 2023 before the project expanded to include West Point and Macon, CEO Brian Clark told The Dispatch.
“(This project was) very important to us because in rural Mississippi and rural America, young people weren’t going back home when they went to college, or they got out working,” Clark said. “They left, and didn’t come back. This is creating an environment where you can live in the most remote part of North Mississippi and have equal or better internet than (what) you can have in a major city.”
Clark told The Dispatch the FASTnet program took about four years and nearly $120 million to bring to completion. Now every member that sits within 4-County’s coverage area can access FASTnet, he said, thanks to roughly 5,500 miles of fiber optic lines laid by the cooperative.
The broadband project began after a 2019 state law allowed rural electrical cooperatives to offer internet to its customers, Clark said. The nonprofit received $41 million in state and federal funding for the project, as well as an additional roughly $80 million in loans to fully service its coverage area and eventually expand to meet needs in West Point and Macon.
“Our initial plan was just to build to the 4-County members because they own us,” Clark said. “… Once that need was filled, then we started getting requests … from people in Macon and West Point. But our answer was, ‘Look, I hate to tell you this, but we’re not going to do anything until we serve our members first.’”
In 2023 and 2024, about 910 miles of lines were added to the project to service Macon and West Point, where about 1,700 users are now connected, 4-County Director of Public Relations and Marketing Jon Turner wrote in an email to The Dispatch.
“While we already had contractors here building, instead of sending them off and hiring them again, we just kept the momentum going,” Clark said. “And when we finished our system, then we ventured into Macon and West Point.”
Now approximately 13,000 4-County users in the Golden Triangle are covered by FASTnet, Turner said.
Clark said it’s unlikely the program will expand to other cities in its coverage area given the existence of competitors in other cities and towns.
“I think I would need to get a better sense from the people in those towns that they want us to come, and I haven’t really felt that yet because I think there’s enough competition in some of those towns,” Clark said.
Giving back to the community
Since being founded in 1953, 4-County has expanded its reach to about 52,000 electrical meters, which grows by about 500 each year, Clark told Rotarians.
“That equates to about 41,000 homes, 10,000 medium and small businesses and about 700 large businesses in our footprint,” Clark said. “We’ve done a good job at that. We have about 150 employees, and it always astounds me that we serve nine counties … with 150 employees.”
Clark also spoke on the 4-County Foundation, which was founded in 2015 and receives monthly contributions from customers who round up their bills to the nearest dollar.
Clark said each month the nonprofit brings in about $20,000, and over the last decade, it has donated about $2.5 million to nonprofits in the area, including The Golden Triangle Theatre, FORGE and The Salvation Army of Columbus.
“You spread that out among nine counties, and we’ve impacted a lot of people in 10 years,” Clark said. “We’ve done a lot of stuff. A lot of it revolves around education and first responders.”
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You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
