Co-op Members
32,218
Total Miles of Fiber
3,123
Project Timeline
3 years
Success Story Update
Network Construction Complete; FTTH Now Available to 100% of Members
May 2022
MidSouth Fiber has charted a major milestone for its cooperative members in rural Texas, completing its fiber-to-the-home network on-system build to serve 100 percent of the EMC’s members.
More than 16,000 MidSouth members now have access to multi-gigabit-speed internet service, among the most robust and fastest internet in the country.
ON NETWORK COMPLETION:
“Providing a reliable high-speed connection to every member of our cooperative was imperative for our communities to access the same communication services as our urban neighbors. The digital divide became abundantly evident during the pandemic shutdown, as our rural areas lacked the bandwidth for video classrooms and conferences.
“Our MidSouth team stepped up installation during a difficult time on all of us and completed the on-system build ahead of schedule. Meeting such a milestone makes me tremendously proud of the dedication and hard work of our board members and employees.”
“The need in rural Texas for broadband is great.”
Originally published: March, 2022
It’s an observation Kerry Kelton, general manager and CEO of MidSouth Electric Cooperative and President and CEO of MidSouth Fiber, has made on more than one occasion. Over the past two years, Kelton and his team have been setting a fast pace to bring fiber broadband to rural communities they serve in southeast Texas and meet that dire need.
MidSouth’s fiber-to-the-home project (FTTH) has other cooperatives in the area watching and learning as the co-op has rapidly deployed fiber and connected members to high-speed internet. Originally slated to be a five-year project, MidSouth’s fiber build will end up finishing in only two-and-a-half years, with plans to even expand beyond its service territory. The fast pace is partially due to MidSouth Fiber’s partnership with Conexon.
“We chose Conexon because we were able to go and look at and talk to cooperatives already working with Conexon to see exactly what a successful project looked like,” Kelton said. “Conexon has been there with us through the entire process.”
“Conexon has helped us move at a faster timeline,” Kelton said. “It’s [working] together that has really enabled us to move at a very high rate of speed.”
MidSouth’s FTTH project started to take shape more than a decade ago, after Hurricane Ike hit Texas in 2008. The MidSouth Electric Cooperative team knew that something had to be done about its connection infrastructure. The team began looking for solutions to not only enhance its electric infrastructure, but also help bring needed fiber broadband to members. Conexon produced an initial feasibility study and then formed a closer partnership to help the co-op manage and execute the project. A large part of the attraction to a Conexon partnership was the firm’s experience with multiple cooperatives.
“We chose Conexon because we were able to go and look at and talk to cooperatives already working with Conexon to see exactly what a successful project looked like,” Kelton said. “Conexon has been there with us through the entire process.”
In its first year alone, MidSouth Fiber was able to connect nearly 5,000 members to its fiber network. “Our members really wanted it,” Kelton said. “From the time we started putting our first fiber up, our members started asking for it.”
The MidSouth team is now seeing how fiber is making rural communities flourish. “It’s positively impacted people moving from the Houston area out into the rural area because they can work from anywhere in today’s world,” Kelton said. “I’m getting emails from customers that used to have to drive to Houston every day from our area, that’s an hour and a half, two hour drive. Now they’re working from home three to four days a week and they say it’s changed their life.”
To read about where MidSouth Electric Cooperative got its start, click here.