Tupelo Teams With Co-Op on New Broadband Work

City officials in Tupelo (MS) allowed an electronic cooperative the option to use its utility poles to provide broadband services more efficiently to some Tupelo residents. The Tupelo City Council voted to accept a pole attachment agreement between the city and Tombigbee Fiber, which will allow the organization to place attachments on city-owned utility poles for broadband services. A small portion of city residents are customers of Tombigbee, but the organization does not offer broadband internet services citywide. Scott Hendrix, the CEO of the Tombigbee Electric Power Association, said the agreement is primarily a way for the organization to build its existing broadband project in the city more efficiently and help with the transportation of equipment. But the recent agreement does not mean that the electric cooperative plans to extend its broadband services out to the city at large. However, it could allow for plans to expand in the future. Private companies such as Comcast and AT&T already provide internet services to Tupelo residents, but those services often have a tiered plan where the companies charge different prices for different internet speeds. Electric cooperatives are organizations that are owned by the customers themselves. Most of their profits are invested in infrastructure upgrades.