Broadband interest meeting comes to Franklin County

Interested in receiving faster Internet service at home? Frustrated when the weather gets choppy and so does the Internet connection? Steve Foshee just might have the solution, and anyone interested in hearing about it can attend the Broadband Meeting being held Oct. 26 at 6 p.m. in Phil Campbell High School’s auditorium.

Foshee is the president and CEO of Tombigbee Electric Cooperative, a company whose original goal was to get electricity to the rural areas of Marion, Lamar and Fayette counties. Today the company is actively working to bring high-speed, affordable Internet to rural citizens through fiber optic cables (what the company calls freedomFIBER), according to state Rep. Johnny Mack Morrow, who is part of the Franklin County Broadband Task Force, which has been leading the charge for affordable broadband in the county for several years.

“This meeting is to determine if there is enough interest in Franklin County to install this access to broadband Internet and to see if Foshee is interested in expanding into Franklin County,” Morrow explained.

According to the freedomFIBER website, installation is in progress in the cities of Hamilton and Winfield, with plans to expand into the rest of Marion and Lamar counties and the cities of Haleyville and Fayette.

“Fiber is faster than what we have currently, can hold more data than copper and can reach more places than towers would be able to,” explained Doug Aaron from the Franklin County Water Authority, which would administer broadband services in the county.

In 2014 Morrow turned over the issue of broadband to the FCWA after a constitutional amendment vote that was approved at 74 percent.

Morrow said Tombigbee has the capacity to expand, and he hopes the county can work out this collaboration with them.

“Our future depends on high speed Internet, especially if we want our children to succeed,” Morrow said.