Finally – An Update (Of Sorts) On Fiber Deployment In Water Valley
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DAVE’S WORLD
By David Howell
Hardly a week passes that someone doesn’t ask when fiber will be installed city-wide in Water Valley. Obviously high speed internet is available in portions of the city, either by C-Spire, AT&T, MaxxSouth and other providers. But there are portions of the city, and areas outside the city served by the Water Valley Electric Department, that have little access to high speed internet.
Carey Sartain stopped by the Herald office last week to ask about fiber. He lives in the Camp Ground community, just north of Water Valley, and receives electricity from the City of Water Valley Electric Department. Carey has DSL, an outdated AT&T connection for his internet service, and it is extremely slow. Carey said outages are not uncommon and he is patiently waiting for a fiber deployment project that will include the entire coverage area for the city’s electric department.
Remember everything surrounding the city’s electric department coverage area is served by electric power associations, or EPAs, and all have access to fiber from the EPAs. Tallahatchie Valley Electric Power Association (TVEPA) covers big portion of the county, and the company’s customers have had access to high-speed internet utilizing fiber for over two years.
This is frustrating, Carey has neighbors around him who receive power from TVEPA and thus have high speed internet, while he and hundreds of others are still waiting for fiber.
Now for some optimism shared by Mayor Tommy Reynolds during last week’s Board of Aldermen meeting.
“I think we are fixing to get broadband (internet) in Water Valley,” the mayor told attendees.
This means Water Valley and areas outside of the city served by the Water Valley Electric Department like the Camp Ground community where Carey lives.
Both Mayor Reynolds and City Attorney Daniel Martin are optimistic that ongoing litigation regarding funding for fiber deployment in the city could be resolved soon. You remember the lawsuit? MaxxSouth filed a petition last year to block federal funding for fiber deployment in the city.
We better have a quick recap as several months have passed since this was last reported in the Herald. Actually let’s back up to the origin of this federal funding that will flow through the state.
In 2021, Congress passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, more commonly known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill. The bill ultimately authorized the spending of over a trillion dollars on roads, bridges, airports, railroads and countless other projects.
This funding includes $1.2 billion dollars to Mississippi for the deployment of high speed internet to reach areas that do not have service, or that have slow internet service. The Mississippi Legislature enacted a bill in 2022 creating an office of broadband for the state known as BEAM (Broadband Expansion and Accessibility of Mississippi) to lead the expansion of connectivity to underserved and unserved areas statewide using the federal funding.
Last August, BEAM announced funding was approved for nine projects totaling $21.6 million to expand internet serve to approximately 12,300 households in communities across the state. The BEAM allocations included an award to Tallahatchie Valley Electric Power Association (TVEPA) for $3.8 million to help fund broadband buildout to 811 unserved and underserved locations in the Water Valley Electric Department coverage area, and in southern Panola County.
Last September, a little over a week after the announcement from BEAM, MaxxSouth Broadband petitioned the court to reverse the decision by BEAM to allocate the funding for the buildout in Water Valley. The petition was filed in Hind County Chancery Court. This is the litigation Mayor Reynolds and Attorney Martin were referencing in the city meeting.
In a nutshell, MaxxSouth believes that grants were awarded to provide or expand internet service in some of the same areas where MaxxSouth’s broadband services are already deployed.
“MaxxSouth built out its broadband network as considerable expanse using its own capital,” the lawsuit states.
That certainly makes sense, if a private company provided its own capital to build infrastructure to offer high speed internet, the government should not come along and subsidize another company’s buildout to provide the same service.
But there is a problem, a number of residents who live a bit off of a public road have complained that it will cost hundreds or thousands of dollars to have MaxxSouth run cable to their residence. And Mayor
Reynolds has stated that a claim by MaxxSouth in a FCC filing stating that all houses and businesses in the city and outlying areas that received electricity from the Water Valley Electric Department have high-speed internet options – is simply not accurate.
I’m certainly no attorney or internet guru, but it appears that the petition filed by MaxxSouth boils down to procedure. Did the BEAM office follow procedure for determining if high speed internet is available in the area from MaxxSouth when the funding was awarded to TVEPA?
MaxxSouth says no, the BEAM office and TVEPA says yes.
Now we are waiting to see what the judge says.
Mayor Tommy Reynolds believes the ruling is imminent, likely some time in January.
City Attorney Daniel Martin and Reynolds both believe the ruling will likely come in favor of TVEPA.
Stay tuned.
