Freedom Fiber FiberRise Tombigbee Electric Coop

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tombigbee Electric Cooperative partners with FiberRise to bring high-speed fiber Internet to rural Northwest Alabama

New ‘Freedom Fiber’ network to be fastest network in Alabama, speeds up to 10 gigs

Huntsville, Ala., June 23, 2018 — The new ‘Freedom Fiber’ high-speed fiber Internet coming to rural Northwest Alabama is more than just an investment in faster Internet service, said the project’s leaders. It’s a transformative investment in improving lives for the residents who call this region home.

“FiberRise is helping us improve life in our rural communities,” said Steve Foshee, General Manager of Tombigbee Electric Cooperative, which announced today its selection of FiberRise to build a fiber infrastructure that will bring Internet speeds 10 to 1,000 times faster than speeds currently available to customers in the Tombigbee service area. “This is not just about Internet. This is going to transform education, our medical community, the lives of our young people, and so much more.”

Freedom Fiber will be the fastest network in the State of Alabama, with speeds up to 10 gigs and a minimum speed of 100 megabits-per-second (mbps).

Foshee compared the excitement around the project to that like communities experienced in the 1930s when electricity expanded to rural areas.

“We care deeply about our residents and the communities we serve, and we understand the critical need for access to high-speed Internet in order to thrive in the years ahead,” Foshee said. “This is why we are making a transformational investment to provide affordable access to the highest-speed fiber network available, and FiberRise has been a big part of helping us develop a plan to make this work, both economically and physically.”
Freedom Fiber will initially serve the cities of Hamilton and Winfield, with plans to expand the fiber-optic network to more than 1,600 miles across Northwest Alabama covering areas across Marion, Lamar, Fayette and Winston counties beginning in 2018. Within five years, every rural home in the Tombigbee service area will have access to advanced fiber-optic Internet.

The role of FiberRise will be to build an optimized fiber infrastructure that will provide the capability for new advanced services and ultra-fast broadband service, as well as custom fiber services tailored for small and large industries. These advanced solutions will be offered at very competitive prices generally available only in large urban cities.

”We are delighted to have the opportunity to serve Tombigbee as their partner on the Freedom Fiber project to bring the fastest Internet speeds available to parts of rural Alabama,” said Chad Dieselberg, CTO of FiberRise. “Every member of the cooperative will have access to the same Gigabit service available in the most modern cities across our nation. Children will have better access to the best applications for learning and gaming, and the fiber infrastructure supports many new applications such as telemedicine, smart cities, and more that would not be options without the fiber.”

 

Contact:

Chad Dieselberg
CTO, FiberRise
(256) 269-4700
chad.dieselberg@fiber-rise.com

 

Steve Foshee
GM, Tombigbee Electric Cooperative
(205) 921-6712
sfoshee@tombigbee.org