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County To Consider Fiber Home Internet Proposals For North Escambia
November 27, 2022
CLICK HERE FOR AN UPDATE TO THIS STORY.
Escambia County has received multiple proposals to build a fiber network to provide true high speed broadband internet in North Escambia.
Proposals received included:
- Cox Communications
- NextCity Networks, a Florida Power & Light sister company
- C Spire Fiber
- Escambia River Electric Cooperative in partnership with Conexon Connect
Some of the companies would bring fiber to all homes in their proposal area fairly quickly, while another would take up to a decade.
NextCity Networks (FPL sister company) proposes an ISP partner that will bring service to residential homes within 7-10 years. EREC, a member owned electric cooperative, proposes to begin servicing residential customers in their franchise area about 35 weeks after a contract approval date.
The county commission previously divided the county broadband project into two areas — north and south of 10 Mile Road — and committed $10 million to the northern portion from a $22 million American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) allocation.
Escambia County will contribute up to $10 million, plus expected grant funds of several million dollars more, for the fiber backbone network across the area north of 10 Mile Road. The remaining funds will go toward the southern area in the future.
The county won’t provide internet all the way to the home. Instead, the winning company will be the internet service provider to the end user.
The Escambia County Commission will begin consideration of the proposals in a special meeting Monday afternoon. NorthEscambia.com will continue to follow this story.
Comments
13 Responses to “County To Consider Fiber Home Internet Proposals For North Escambia”
I just hope that whoever we get , maybe a good company that really wants to
Provide to the people a great internet service and Everyone in the Byrneville Rd/ Byrneville area Hwy. 4 and 4a, all the way through Bratt will be given a chance to join in. I have AT&T fiber optics running across our property but still cannot hook to AT&T internet, can’t figure that out, it’s on 29 and parts of Hwy 4 but not on Byrneville Rd!
South land was a great cable company who offered great service couldn’t recover from two major hurricanes, Ivan, Dennis and no money was offered to help the extreme north end of Escambia co.
I’d say it’s time you politicians stop taking things away from us and start sharing the love from the south end! We pay the same high taxes as all of the county residents!
This is such an important initiative and will be a fantastic legacy for Commissioner Barry and the BCC. I’d really love to see them put it on the legislative ask to lobby for more money to come this way to expand more quickly for the entire County, once the needs are met in District 5 which definitely has the worst issues. It’s a fantastic thing all around, crucial for job growth and education, and really needed in so many places. Our internet is horrible in Navy Point and much of the West side for so many people, regardless of the company. It would be amazing to have the fiber optic running all the way to the houses!
I think a win-win for the north end would be EREC and their partnership with Conexon Connect. From their website, I could get 1GB service for what I’m paying for Frontier’s sometimes 24Mbps. EREC already has the poles and the equipment, they just need the experience Conexon brings to run the fiber and get us all connected up. https://conexonconnect.com/home/internet/
Don’t screw this up Escambia County! No FPL “sister company”. I’ve heard good things about C-spire internet but not the wireless phone part. Anything would be better than the in and out, so slow that I cant run my security cameras half the time, Frontier internet we have out here.
Would vote against NextCity
Escambia County needs to seriously consider C Spire Fiber, they have built all over Mississippi and South Alabama. Customers love them. Experience counts and they have resources and experience. Don’t give this contract to some fly by night that has limited experience.
This would be amazing for the residents of Byrneville… We are stuck with one option satellite internet which is no good at all…
That would be so nice for McDavid area our internet service is terrible out this way and if you have frontier it’s so expensive. Hopefully the prices from EREC would be reasonable.
if FPL has anything to do with it , then NO. I am paying so much in electric from FPL that it would be scary to have them also control my Internet. NO WAY . this is crazy with the cost of FPL. I’d rather stay with cox. because no matter what FPL says, the cost would be too much and I DON’T trust anything they say. our electric cost was supposed to go down some each year for the next four years and they keep getting rate hikes every month. LIARS and THIEVES. you have to wonder how much the county is getting in kick backs from FPL to approve this NONSENSE.
@ Susie
I’ve always talked to Cox customer service that were located in Arizona, Texas and a few from Nevada never any one from outside the United States and never anyone local. When you have to call them again for service make sure you ask for a Cox employee be sent not a contract worker let them know if a contract worker is sent you will send them away. I’m not against contract workers but they have very limited time to fix your problem and are always in a rush.
Spectrum has been installing fiber in the north end rural areas for the last year or so and are now providing the service to customers with true FTTH(fiber to the home). The areas that I’ve noticed had to be backed by government money because there is no way it could ever be profitable
So we know fpl will raise the cost a couple times a year.
Maybe EREC. Price will be important for many end users.
Cox is the absolute most ridiculously expensive service and is totally unreliable but there’s not much of a choice where we are. If you have any kind of problem with your service, good luck with speaking to a tech in the United States. They also charge the customer to come fix THEIR non-working equipment unless, of course, you pay an extra fee PER MONTH. You’ll definitely NOT get good service from these screw-ups unless you’re rich and don’t care where your money is going.