Regional high-speed Internet project under way

[LPPT]

Paulding County Economic Development

This project will pick up a good portion of the U.S. 278 Business Corridor and provide much needed fiber access to a number of Paulding County's employment centers.

 

ARTICLE HERE

 

Construction is under way on a $21 million fiber optic system that will expand and improve broadband service in Northwest Georgia and eastern Alabama.

 

“We have eight or nine crews out working right now in Floyd and Polk counties, and a schedule of where we’re going next,” said Ken Carlton of Appalachian Valley Fiber Network.

 

The project is funded through a federal stimulus package Broadband Technology and Opportunities Program grant. It will install high-speed “middle mile” fiber — a backbone that any broadband provider can build from to serve individual homes and businesses — in 12 counties.

 

Carlton said crews are at work on U.S. 27 South in Floyd and Polk counties; U.S. 411 to Cave Spring; U.S. 27 North in Armuchee; and U.S. 278 from Cedartown to Rockmart. The majority of fiber will be underground.

 

“The project will eventually include work in Chattooga, Bartow, Walker, Gordon and Haralson counties in Georgia,” he said. “There is also a segment that extends to Anniston, Ala., along the Interstate 20 corridor.”

 

Floyd County Commissioner Irwin Bagwell said his home in Vanns Valley is one of the last on the way to Cave Spring to have high-speed Internet available, and he was pleased to see surveyors out marking the route.

 

“It’s actually being put in, not just talked about,” Bagwell said. “I’ve got DSL, but the higher the speed the better. And I know other folks will be glad to see it come.”

 

AVFN is a spinoff of Summerville-based Parker FiberNet, which put up its existing fiber as the local match for the grant. Its public partners include the Northwest Georgia Regional Commission and the East Alabama Regional Planning and Development Commission.

 

Read more: RN-T.com - Regional high speed Internet project under way

[CrabbyDaddy]

I hope AT&T doesn't have anything to do with it.