GigSouth has entered a leasing agreement with Southern Telecom for dark fiber to expand its current network within target rural areas in the southeastern United States, utilizing STI's metro dark fiber service and backbone fiber network. The project will start with rural communities in the Atlanta region.
"GigSouth is changing the game, flipping the market on its head, jumping a couple generations of service offerings, lowering pricing so that big data is affordable and providing our customers with white glove support while doing it," said Kevin Paulk, CTO of GigSouth. "STI's metro dark fiber service supports our mission and then some. With STI, we basically have an unlimited amount of bandwidth potential, which allows us to lower pricing on our existing gigabit Internet offering and offer connectivity that is beyond gigabit to residential and commercial customers. We reached 10 Gbps two years ago and are proud to announce our new 100 Gbps offering, to be launched by the end of the year. STI's fiber is allowing us to make this huge jump, which guarantees we will be ready for the next surge in data demands."
Southern Telecom presently markets or owns more than 2,600 fiber route miles in the southeast, anchored by a metro network throughout Atlanta.
"The majority of consumers in rural areas typically only have one choice when it comes to Internet access, and this lack of competition often results in higher pricing, subpar support and slow service," said Michael Lamar, carrier account manager for STI. "STI is honored to provide our dark fiber services and fiber-optic network to GigSouth as the company works hard to change this dynamic, grow its network and stay ahead of the curve and demand for high-speed, reliable bandwidth in underserved rural communities."
"As we embark on this partnership with STI, we are focusing on the Atlanta region initially, and have plans to expand our network to many other local markets via STI fiber," said Paulk. "GigSouth is very thankful and appreciative that a large utility-owned company like STI is devoting its time and resources to help another private telco grow to reach more people. Without STI, we would not have an affordable, solid, dark fiber solution. We look forward to a long, mutually beneficial relationship with STI and reaching more satisfied customers as a result."