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Escambia County Chooses EREC To Bring 2 Gigabit Fiber Internet To North Escambia
November 29, 2022
The Escambia County Commission voted Monday to pursue an agreement with Escambia River Electric Cooperative to bring high speed fiber internet directly to thousands of homes and businesses in rural northern Escambia County potentially as early as next summer.
Escambia County will contribute $6 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to the project across EREC’s franchise area, which is roughly north of Barrineau Park Road. EREC will provide the balance of the estimated $23 to $24 million project or apply for other grants and funding.
“4,200 to 4,300 homes and businesses, which is every single home and business in their footprint,” District 5 Commissioner Steven Barry said. “It’s fiber to every one of those. It’s nearly 700 miles of fiber, 500 aerial, 200 underground. And what’s been negotiated is a $6 million contribution from county ARPA funds.”
Three basic speed tiers are proposed are:
- 100 Mbps/100 Mbps — $49.95/month
- 1 Gig/1Gig — $79.95/month
- 2 Gig/2Gig — $99.95/month
Under the Affordable Connectivity Program, ACP, Lifeline, and other low-income benefits will lower by $30 per month, or as low as $19.95 per month.
EREC is a member-owned cooperative founded in 1939.
“I could not be more excited to be moving forward with a partnership with EREC. The ability to bring real fiber high speed internet access to every home and business in their service area is a dream come true,” Barr said. “By utilizing only federal dollars, thousands of residents will gain access to something that is crucial, and Escambia County has the ability to partner with EREC, a cooperative that is owned by our friends and neighbors. It’s truly a blessing to be able to bring access to this service to rural areas neglected by internet providers for so long.”
“We are very excited to learn of the Escambia County award,” EREC CEO Ryan Campbell said. “All of us at Escambia River Electric Cooperative are eager to bring broadband fiber to unserved and underserved homes and businesses in this rural county. We are in the very early design stage, and we look forward to communicating more about our plans in early 2023.”
EREC’s fiber ring will also connect about two dozen county-owned facilities in the cooperative’s service area.
EREC will partner with Conexon Connect under the proposal.
“Conexon Connect works predominantly with electric cooperatives, building networks using a methodology and architecture that allows the co-ops to leverage their existing infrastructure, thus powering reliable and affordable broadband service for 100% of their members,” according to the company’s website.
The county commission’s vote during a special meeting Monday afternoon was to negotiate a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with EREC, and provide support as EREC applies for Florida Department of Economic Opportunity grants. The MOU will return to the BOCC for final approval at a future meeting.
The vote was 4-1, with newly-elected District 2 Commissioner Mike Kohler voting no after saying that he did not have time to read and become familiar with program documentation.
“I can’t vote for something if I don’t have complete knowledge on it, and I don’t,” he said.
Other proposals were received from Cox Communications, Florida Power & Light’s sister company NextCity Networks, and C-Spire Fiber.
Cox proposed connecting about 2,500 homes, while NextCity Networks proposed taking up to 10 years to provide fiber to homes.
Escambia County originally sought proposals to provide fiber to homes north of 10 Mile Road, with another upcoming request for proposals for the area south of 10 Mile Road. The county committed up to $10 million to the area north of 10 Mile Road, with another $12 million for the area to the south.
Accepting the EREC proposal for $6 million for an area further north of 10 Mile Road will shift the second phase to roughly south of Barrineau Park Road.
Comments
16 Responses to “Escambia County Chooses EREC To Bring 2 Gigabit Fiber Internet To North Escambia”
Would love to have this in northern Santa Rosa county….especially Berrydale. Our AT&T internet is terrible
@Resident
If you live in Byrneville on EREC lines, you will have the option to get the service.
From the article, all of EREC customers will have the option in ESCAMBIA county.
Is Santa Rosa planning anything like this for their EREC service area that still only has satellite internet available?
@ Lori- living where you do- don’t you get an option to have Cox? Rural customers only have Frontier as an option and they are about as popular as FPL is for power. I’m sure they will expand quickly because my house didn’t make the cut either.
Since EREC already runs the power lines all the way to the transformers, suspect they’ll run the fiber on the same poles and the customer will have to pay for the distance between the transformer and the house. I predict by this time next year, if the installation goes as planned, Frontier will cease to exist in the northend of the county.
Just wondering if the outline communities like byrneville where I live will get this??
“Commissioner Mike Kohler voting no after saying that he did not have time to read and become familiar with program documentation.” I said it before, Kohler will be on the outside looking in for the next four years because he’s not one of the connected good old boys; this decision’s approval was predetermined before the meeting, and this was only a procedural formality for the record.
A shame that there will probably be lawsuits by Cox and no telling who else to delay this.
I would love for it to become a reality though. EREC is my electric company, so I fall firmly in their footprint in North Escambia. The proposed monthly payments look great to me (the 2 Gig service is cheaper than the Starlink service I am lucky enough to have).
The big cost, if this moves forward, will be to see what the cost to run the fiber to the actual house will be. My neighbors and I are kind of far off the main road so even if a junction box is right beside our mailboxes at the road that’s still quarter of a mile to the houses.
Fingers crossed, but time will tell.
It’s about time! It’s 2022 and almost everything is online. Almost everything kids to do for homework or projects requires internet.
Huge investment for an underserved community. It is expensive per household but this is how new opportunities are created.
Hope they can work to get the service in Century as well. Glad they chose EREC.
Of the 4, I believe they made the best choice. EUEC has a decent reputation from its users and I think they will try and do a good job. C-Spire is a quality company but I think most folks feel they already send enough money to COX and FPL for substandard and overpriced products.
The $30M total cost comes to around $7,000 per household or business, which seems excessive? However, a quick look on line shows tons of grants available through tons of federal and state agencies so hopefully EUEC gets other grants to go toward that $24M balance.
Now let’s see if Bluffsprings FINALLY gets internet and maybe if we’re extremely lucky cable TV.
We live between Pine Forest Rd and Kingsffield on 297A and don’t have fiber internet – established neighborhood of 15 years – what about us? Not happy.
Won’t that be nice and cheaper than satellite.
Kohler, links were on the backup when you got sworn in. Cheesy excuse.
Looks like an excellent investment of ARP.