City’s Fiber Deployment Hits Snag
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Yalobusha County Economic Development District Executive Director Kagan Coughlin (standing) provided an overview of city projects he is working on during the March 5 city meeting including fiber deployment.
WATER VALLEY – A proposed agreement for Tallahatchie Valley Electric Power Association (TVEPA) to deploy fiber in the City of Water Valley has hit a snag after a cable company challenged grant funding allocated for the project.
The Office of Broadband Expansion and Accessibility of Mississippi (BEAM) announced last year that TVEPA will be awarded $1.135 million to deploy fiber in the City of Water Valley. Yalobusha County Economic Development District Executive
Director Kagan Coughlin reported that the BEAM award has challenged by MaxxSouth, the cable provider in the city. Coughlin’s comments came during the monthly city meeting on March 5 as he updated aldermen on multiple projects in Water Valley.
“We received the award, but MaxxSouth has challenged that grant award,” Coughlin told aldermen. “In their last filing with the FCC, MaxxSouth stated that they supply every resident in Water Valley with 1,000 megabytes of (internet) service. They aren’t required to supply any proof, but it has put a hard pause on that grant award.”
Coughlin and Mayor Tommy Reynolds have met with the director of BEAM to try and determine a path to demonstrate that MaxxSouth does not provide high speed internet to the entire city.
Coughlin reported that the total price for fiber deployment for the city’s electric department customers will be approximately four million dollars.
“It would take time for TVEPA to recoup that investment and the BEAM funding is vital for this project,” Coughlin told the Herald.
Coughlin also reported that cable companies have challenged BEAM allocations across the state. BEAM announced funding for 52 projects in Mississippi including Water Valley in the first round of funding totaling $112,028,710 to provide high speed internet. Mississippi is expected to receive $1.2 billion from the U.S. Department of the Treasury Coronavirus Capital Projects Funds, money that will flow through BEAM to reach approximately 300,000 unserved or underserved locations across the state.
TVEPA is an electric cooperative that serves over 27,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers in nine north Mississippi counties including Yalobusha County. TVEPA offers fiber through its subsidiary company, TVIfiber, in the nine-county coverage area.
TVEPA was the first electric cooperative in Mississippi to launch the process of bringing fiber to the home, work that started in 2019. City officials have been in discussions with TVEPA for almost two years about deploying fiber to Water Valley Electric Department customers.
