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Escambia Again Selects EREC For North Escambia Fiber Internet
January 12, 2023
The Escambia County Commission has once again selected Escambia River Electric Cooperative (EREC) with their partner firm Conexon Connect to provide high speed fiber internet to North Escambia.
The county originally accepted proposals to provide fiber to homes north of 10 Mile Road and approved entering into a memorandum of understanding with Escambia River Electric Cooperative in late November. Cox Communications retained a law firm and filed a formal protest against the award.
Escambia County regrouped, deciding to resolicit bids, narrowing the area serviced to north of Muscogee Road. Cox declined to bid in the second round, saying the new area was too far away from their existing fiber network in Cantonment.
Two companies submitted proposals and were heard by the commission Thursday morning: IBT PCS and Conexon Connect in partnership with EREC.
The commission voted 4-1, with commissioner Mike Kohler voting no, to negotiate a memorandum of understanding with EREC.
Commissioner Steven Barry said EREC, a member-owned electric cooperative, had the clear competitive advantage because they already have infrastructure in place. For any other company, the construction cost would be significantly higher with a 5-10 year buildout, he said, to get fiber to all of the homes.
IBT proposed nearly 110 miles of underground fiber, but using wireless technology to reach about 2,000 homes. EREC proposed almost 600 miles of fiber, including 175 miles underground, with fiber serving every home and business, over 4,000 of them, in their territory, “for considerably less county contribution,” Barry said.
Escambia County has committed $10 million of American Rescue Plan federal dollars toward the project north of Muscogee Road with the company owning and operating the network. Another $12 million is committed to a second phase south of Muscogee Road. The funds are aimed at providing broadband internet to unserved, and underserved, residents.
In both phases, fiber connections to county facilities will be provided.
EREC plan to offer symmetrical speeds from 100 Mbps to 2 Gig at a price ranging from $49.95 to $99.95 per month.
NorthEscambia.com will continue to cover North Escambia area broadband issues.
Pictured: Escambia River Electric Cooperative CEO Ryan Campbell addresses the Escambia County Commission on Thursday. Image for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Comments
9 Responses to “Escambia Again Selects EREC For North Escambia Fiber Internet”
This is great for those that live within EREC’s service area, but leaves out thousands of others. Not everyone who lives in North Escambia has EREC. I guess we’ll be stuck with mobile broadband or satellite for the foreseeable future?
I live on Highway 29 in Molino and have power through FPL. Will I still be able to get internet with EREC? I ask because the article states that EREC already has the infrastructure in place.
COX will obviously need to increase our monthly bills due to not getting a contract upon which they chose to not bid.
Wish I could be billed on the channels and programs that we watch and not all the junk stuff we have to pay for so COX can make money from their advertising,
Our local newspaper has gone UP on their on-line subscriptions and I wonder for What? No extra cost in materials, paper, delivery, gas, or anything….just raised the prices. How long will we continue to support this?
EXPANDING ON:
“Fiber is very cheap putting in the ground is what costs”
26 cents per foot from Amazon, before installation or burial.
13 cents per foot from TTI Fiber Communication Tech. Co., Ltd., before installation or burial. (Just because Google brought up this two first)
In the early days of testing, a fiber optic line was laid across a. 4 lane highway, totally exposed and unburied. At the end of the test it was still carrying signals without problems even though cars and trucks driving over it had driven it into the asphalt.
It would be nice if that happened to include the part of the north end served by FPL, like say Bluff Springs Road for a randomly selected example (that I happen to live on).
David for self-interest
RaD. Fiber is very cheap putting in the ground is what costs. Not to mention the Management and collection of fees.
Is Cox now going to protest this decision as well? Even though they didn’t submit a new proposal after all the fuss the company made.
Wow. That is 600 miles is 3,168,000 feet of fiber. That can’t be cheap.
Glad to see that Cox was coaxed out of this deal by altering the coverage areas. Always more than one way to skin a cat.