DeSantis Awards $35.8 Million For Fiber Broadband In Parts Of North Escambia, Santa Rosa County

July 8, 2023

Gov. Ron DeSantis has announced $35.8 million to expand broadband fiber internet access in portions of North Escambia and in northern Santa Rosa County.

In Escambia County, $1,444,738.50 was awarded for a Cox Communications project in portions of Molino, Cottage Hill, Quintette and Cantonment to add 20 miles of fiber optic cable to provide 78 unserved locations with symmetrical download and upload speeds of 1GB.

In Santa Rosa County, $9,648,409.48 was awarded to Escambia River Electric Cooperatives partner Conexon Connect to add 756.1 miles of fiber optic cable to provide 217 unserved locations with symmetrical download and upload speeds of 1GB to serve portions of the Town of Jay and the unincorporated areas of Allentown, Dixonville, Munson, Pine Level, Springhill and Whitfield.

Also in Santa Rosa County, $24,752,619.75 was awarded to Cox Communications to serve portions of the Town of Jay, Allentown, Dixonville, Munson, Pine Level, Springhill, Bagdad Whitfield, Dickerson, Avalon, Mulat, East Milton, Roeville and Harold.

“I could not be happier and more excited for my friends and neighbors in the greater Cottage Hill and Quintette communities who will be so positively impacted by this project,” Escambia County District 5 Commissioner Steven Barry said. “I want to thank Governor Ron DeSantis, Senator Doug Broxson, Representative Michelle Salzman and Representative Alex Andrade for their continued support of broadband expansion in Escambia County. Also, I want to thank Cox Communications for their continued support of ensuring access to high speed internet in Escambia County and more specifically in District 5.”

“High-speed broadband Internet is important infrastructure for Florida communities and will generate economic development activity and a talented labor force,” said DeSantis. “Florida is proud to make investments in broadband Internet infrastructure that will benefit all Floridians and make long-term impacts in communities across the state.”

NorthEscambia.com graphic, click to enlarge.

Comments

14 Responses to “DeSantis Awards $35.8 Million For Fiber Broadband In Parts Of North Escambia, Santa Rosa County”

  1. Centuy on July 11th, 2023 9:24 pm

    I think we should give century more money to spend on bridges and water and gas. Century politicians understand that their is no guarantee of the future and we should live for the day. If we have it spend it and have faith more money will come from govt

  2. Joni on July 10th, 2023 1:05 pm

    @Taylon, the reason EREC got a smaller area is they are only servicing their customers. They aren’t providing for people who don’t use their electricity. That is how Cox got a bigger area. However, I still get screwed because I’m in not in either of their planned areas. So this affects me in no way.

  3. Taylon on July 10th, 2023 8:34 am

    How the heck did COX get approx three times as much as EREC? EREC will be rolling out to their entire footprint in Santa Rosa and Escambia for very affordable prices whereas COX will probably only say they are rolling out a big number, delay it for years, and then overreport where they actually serve?

    Seems fair.

    That’s some good lobbying.

  4. sam on July 10th, 2023 8:22 am

    use the money allotted for century to test and clean our water. the town is not functional.

  5. No Excuses on July 9th, 2023 5:30 pm

    Molino suffers again. No benefit from ERCC and none from this deal. What is the problem? What say you Mr. Barry?

  6. Whisperjet on July 9th, 2023 6:47 am

    ..this is great news for Becks lake rd…we can hardly get wifi thru our cell phone towers and phone lines are not much better…

  7. Josh on July 8th, 2023 7:22 pm

    Up here in north Santa Rosa, we can’t even get basic phone lines due to lack of availability. Not sure why they wouldn’t have expanded up here, we literally only have garbage satellite internet and nothing else. That entire map area has cable internet available to them.

  8. Beulah on July 8th, 2023 3:14 pm

    Anyone with FPL? I did contact work for Gulf Power during the transition, found out there are “additional” (~12) fiber optic cables that run everywhere power lines run (it’s part of the bundle I was told from head of IT, not widely known information since there has been issues over who can use & negotiations). Only two are “approved” for use by which are used for “smart” meters and monitoring transformers/outages. Why can’t FPL come to agreements with ISP’s to at least lease these fiber connections since they are in place and literally ready for use? I can see the competition over who gets what areas, etc. But it’s seems like something that can be worked out and be valuable to nearly everyone for reliable high speed internet. Most ISP above ground lines are ran with power lines on power poles anyway.

    Anyone else know this apparently little known fact or shed light on it?

  9. Shane on July 8th, 2023 12:34 pm

    We have 2.5 acres off of Quintette in Pace. We currently have AT&T DSL, and it stinks. We are next door to a house with AT&T fiber. For over a year, we have had a new Mediacom in the front of the yard by the road and a 2nd new pole halfway back into our property beside the house with cable internet lines, but they haven’t begun service, so we are still on DSL. 5-6 months ago, EREC put 2 MORE new poles in the yard with fiber but have stated no plans to start service.

    So to sum up, 2 years ago, we had three power/utility poles in the yards providing power and DSL, and today we have SEVEN poles in our yard with no additional services.

    If we were a little more vain about the appearance of the yard, we might be more frustrated, but it does get a little crazy trying to mow through the labyrinth of three poles that all sit within ten feet of each other on one corner of the property.

  10. tg on July 8th, 2023 11:23 am

    Was hoping small power companys would do it not greedy Cox.

  11. Joni on July 8th, 2023 11:08 am

    What about us lowly Molino people further north on 29? I guess yet again we’re getting the shaft when it comes to good internet.

  12. Kathy on July 8th, 2023 11:03 am

    So how does the rest of Molino/Barrienau Park seem to keep missing these upgrades? We are not in the EREC service area and this map doesn’t include us? We seem to be stuck in the middle for nothing.

  13. derek on July 8th, 2023 8:52 am

    Maybe some investment into Jay High School for RELIABLE internet would be a start! When kids take advances courses not offered in person it’s ridiculous when their online class internet connection doesn’t work half the time!

  14. Bob on July 8th, 2023 8:38 am

    I hope that none of that money is given directly to the Town of Century !!+

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News