Presley: Internet Is A Necessity, Not A Luxury

By David Howell

Editor

WATER VALLEY – Families, businesses and industries lacking access to high speed internet in 2017 is comparable to not having electricity in the early 1900s according to Public Service Commissioner for the Northern District Brandon Presley.

“This is the technology that is driving our economy and is driving our world,” Presley explained during the 167th town hall meeting he has hosted since taking office in 2007.  More than two-dozen people attended the forum last Thursday at the county courthouse in Water Valley and many voiced frustration with the limited availability of high speed internet in the county. 

Presley said a change is needed in the fundamental philosophy shared by many politicians regarding the view of the internet before real improvement will be made. 

“It comes down to a real philosophical questions among legislators in Mississippi and on the national scene,” Presley told the group.  “There is a predominant political philosophy that says internet service is a luxury. Let the open market handle it and if the market drives people to it that’s fine, if not they don’t get it.”

The Commissioner stressed that he felt the issue should be handled differently.

“I don’t believe that way, I think we should treat it just like electricity was treated. We should find ways that are innovative and smart to get service to every dirt and dusty road in Mississippi because it is going to be the infrastructure of the future. Every day that we delay is a day that we are not actually getting anything done. We are very hampered, by the way the law is written and the way federal regulations are,” he explained. 

After outlining problems Mississippi faces to provide internet service to rural area, Presley also pointed to several areas where the Public Service Commission is working to find solutions. One example he cited is the $60 million Mississippians pay annually on their phone bills for the universal service fund.

“We are designated back about $260 annually (from the federal government). Those dollars are spread out to do a lot things,” Presley added, including subsidizing the cost of infrastructure for rural areas where the economics of the investment from private companies will not work otherwise. 

“The Obama administration opened it up and said you could take those dollars and put it into internet services,” Presley continued. He also acknowledged that providing subsidies is not always popular.

“People don’t want to hear it, but it is the honest truth. You would not have electricity no matter where you lived in northeast Mississippi if there had not been a program through Tennessee Valley Authority that said everybody would pay a little bit to get electricity to everybody,” the Commissioner continued as he compared the solution to providing internet across the state to bringing electricity to rural areas in the state during the early 1900s several times during the town hall meeting. 

Presley also touted another solution that is driven by the increasing demands for internet for big energy companies like Entergy. He explained an announcement is coming in the next 60 days for a partnership between C-Spire and Entergy, for C-Spire to run 250 miles of fiber optic line for Entergy.

“This will bring internet to new areas in the state and free up band-width congestion on other other C-Spire fiber optic lines and help push internet service out,” Presley said about the deal that is a first in the country. 

“We have a very multi-pronged approach to trying to deal with these issues and try to do something about them,” he added.

Natural Gas

Another topic during the town hall meeting was expanding natural gas to more areas in the state. 

“So many homes in Mississippi lack natural gas service and they want to have it. It helps reduce the cost of living by reducing the cost of heating bills in the winter time,” Presley explained. He also said the Public Service Commission is working with gas providers across the state to come up with programs to expand services. 

“On average, providing natural gas service saves Mississippians 60 percent on the cost of heating,” he continued.

Hire Mississippi

Presley also briefly touched on a program the Public Service Commission is working to adopt called Hire Mississippi. 

The program is new to Mississippi and the country.

“I get sick and tired of driving by projects funded by state tax dollars that are utilizing out-state-labor,” Presley explained.  “I have introduced a program called Hire Mississippi. All of our major electric and gas companies in the state, in one year they have done hundreds of millions of dollars in operations to maintenance costs,” Presley said.

Although much of this work could be performed by Mississippians, he said on average in-state labor is used on about 20 percent of these jobs. 

“We are paying people from Missouri to trim trees in Mississippi. It makes no sense when we know we have got our own people to do that work,” Presley said. 

Hire Mississippi require companies to advertise these opportunities and notify companies that are in the business of the work and give them a chance at it.

“We hope to try to stop some of the 70-plus percent of the contracts going to out-of-state companies,” Presley told the group. 

Other Input

District 3 Supervisor and realtor Lee McMinn said the number one question a buyer asks about property located in a rural area is the availability of high-speed internet.

“It greatly affects the marketability of property,” McMinn noted.

• District 33 Representative Tommy Reynolds cited the impact of the Oakland Natural Gas District that feeds gas to Windsor Foods, one of the county’s largest employers as an example of the importance of expanding gas service. Reynolds also was credited during the meeting for voting for legislation that would help solve the state’s internet infrastructure crisis.

• Ward Three Alderman Cinnamon Foster questioned a  monthly fee she has paid for five years on her AT&T bill that is allocated to bring fiber optic service to her Main Street business, but hasn’t happened.

“How do you stop them from charging for a service they will never provide?” Foster asked.

“There should be some basic level of consumer protection out there, but it has been a war,” Presley said about billing irregularities.

Pipkin

This is my communication, but it doesn’t work for her small business.

Presley noted that if she wanted to try a different cell phone service, the company is required to provide a 14-day trial service to allow the consumer to try it out.