C Spire has finished the two-plus years, multi-million-dollar construction of a 225-mile-long fiber optic cable route from Kiln, Mississippi to West Mobile, Alabama, the company announced.
Alabama consumers and businesses represent a critical portion of C Spire’s $1 billion investment announced earlier this year to speed the development and deployment of fiber broadband and network enhancements across its three-state footprint.
The recently completed project included putting conduit and fiber optic cable underground and underneath Pascagoula River, Biloxi Back Bay, Fort Bayou and other bodies of water in a route that spans the counties of Hancock, Harrison and Jackson in Mississippi and Mobile in Alabama, along county roads and U.S. Highway 90 in both states. In addition to serving residents in those areas, the latest route also provides fiber backbone to the company’s cell sites and resilience and redundancy for the network.
“C Spire now can deliver low-latency, secure and highly-reliable services from Pearlington to Perdido – that’s a huge lift to the economic growth potential of this region,” said Ben Moncrief, managing director of Alabama and senior vice president of strategic relations for C Spire, in a prepared statement.
“Along with C Spire’s other long-haul builds in West Alabama, this new fiber will help to alleviate Alabama’s painful lack of accessible long-haul and middle-mile fiber infrastructure.”
“Not only are we connecting our legacy fiber network in Mississippi, which we’re using to launch new ultra-fast internet access for consumers in Biloxi, Gulfport and Ocean Springs, but it also helps us expand our reach into Alabama in Mobile and Baldwin counties and Mobile Bay,” said Alan Jones, C Spire chief network officer, in a prepared statement.
C Spire began providing fiber services to Alabama residents in late 2020. The state ranks only 38th nationally in terms of broadband access, so various government bodies and the Alabama Rural Broadband Coalition, a group of community, business and government leaders, are working to improve broadband capabilities.
In July, C Spire announced plans for a 243-mile fiber build from Meridian, MS to Homewood, AL, a project that is expected to be completed next year.
