Leveraging a strong track record with Irby, and utilization of Render’s geospatial construction technology, 3,500 miles of fiber optic cable, CECC have connected over 10,000 locations – 5,000 more than planned – 20 months ahead of time and 20% under budget.
In 2017, with 44% of its members without access to FCC-defined broadband, CECC pioneered a $110 million five-year strategy to modernize the grid with a communications network and deliver symmetrical, gigabit fiber solutions to every household across the region.
Geff Smith, VP of Technology & Communications, Irby said: “This was a complex construction undertaking. From the outset, there was pressure to accelerate the rollout and install fiber as quickly as possible. We needed tools that would help us cut through the complexity, and Render delivered the network design into manageable tasks but more importantly gave us the visibility to make informed decisions on the infrastructure whilst continuing to construct in an agile manner.”
With project milestones and location-based build prioritization becoming a key consideration following the successful addition of CAF II and RDOF funding, CECC recognized that a flexible, geospatial construction approach was critical to ensure the build kept moving, despite the peak of construction being delivered throughout a global materials shortage and pandemic.
The combination of Irby’s material procurement expertise and optimization of resources through Render’s end-to-end digital delivery, CECC was able to maintain an accelerated pace of deployment, improving production rates by greater than 30% and reducing project administration resourcing by an unheard of 75%.
Like most cooperatives, depth of fiber deployment expertise was limited and CECC relied on Irby’s end-to-end digital delivery approach, including Render’s best-in-class technology and global deployment expertise to ensure the project continued to exceed timeline and member expectations. Eliminating manual processes and duplicated data entry enabled project stakeholders across CECC, Irby and their contractors to access real-time geospatial progress views and make data-driven decisions throughout the multi-year deployment.
“At a time when our industry is faced with chronic shortages and costly overruns, we are confidently defying project norms and delivering faster with less resources,” said Smith.
Render CEO Sam Pratt said: “These kinds of rollouts are the great equalizer for underserved rural communities, however they can prove challenging due to the large geographic workfront and limited cell and Internet access, which is precisely the challenge empower and Irby are there to solve. We’re delighted that the Render platform and knowhow helped enable CECC, Irby and the construction contractor D&H Contracting to streamline deployment planning, work allocation, oversight and administration – and ultimately deliver much needed connectivity to an underserved community of CECC members earlier than I think anyone thought possible.”
Jeremiah Sloan, COO, of CECC said: We knew the need for broadband in our member communities was great so we wanted to do everything we could to accelerate the construction of our fiber network. We were able to build at an unprecedented rate, accelerating the connection of households in need of broadband alongside the deployment of smart grid technologies to critical electrical infrastructure. We’re now well positioned to not only meet the broadband needs of our members but also continue to deliver safe, reliable, and affordable power by leveraging our fiber network. It would have been impossible to realize these achievements without Render’s revolutionary approach to construction management and a strong technology and material partnership with Irby Utilities.”
Irby Utilities and Render are partnering to deliver a number of cooperative networks across Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi including Southwest Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation, First Electric Cooperative Corporation, Tippah Electric Power Association, Clay County Electric Cooperative Corporation and Woodruff Electric Cooperative Corporation. Irby and partners’ have experienced recent broadband funding success with all six turnkey projects participating in the RDOF auction securing over $100 million in broadband funding.
About Render Networks
Founded in 2013 with a mission to build networks better, Render has a successful history of streamlining large-scale network construction for CSPs and construction teams. Through the automation of manual tasks, optimization of resources, and map-based visualization, Render’s end-to-end geospatial network construction platform eliminates all paper-based processes achieving real-time progress transparency and generating time and costs efficiencies of greater than 30% and improving visibility and control across global telco infrastructure rollouts.
For more information, visit www.rendernetworks.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
About Irby
Irby was founded in 1926 and is based in Jackson, Mississippi. The company has 57 locations in 25 states. The employees of Irby serve customers with innovative products and services in four major market segments – industrial, contractor, commercial and utility. To find out more, visit Irby.com.
About Sonepar USA
Sonepar USA is an independent, family-owned company with global market leadership in the B-to-B distribution of electrical, industrial and safety products, services and solutions. We are a proud member of the Sonepar Group, the world’s largest privately held electrical distributor. Sonepar entered the US in 1998 and has continued to grow due to strategic acquisitions and organic growth. Today, Sonepar USA is represented by 14 locally managed operating companies with over 700 locations nationwide. For more information, visit soneparusa.com.
The broadband division of C Spire, a Mississippi-based diversified telecommunications and technology services company, will start construction on the next-generation technology later this month in 11 fiberhoods with plans to pass thousands of homes in the Jackson County town over the next several months. Service is planned for the first customers this summer.
Ocean Springs, with a population of 17,872 residents, is the latest Gulf Coast city to get the ultra-fast broadband services from C Spire Fiber. The company already has rolled out service in Diamondhead, Gulfport and Biloxi and is expected to announce additional markets, including the Mobile, Alabama area, soon.
C Spire Fiber is actively soliciting residents who want more reliable and faster broadband internet service based on the crowdsourcing model, which relies on homeowner demand to drive adoption. Consumers can place pre-orders for Gigabit fiber-based internet, Smart WiFi powered by Plume®, Home Protection Plan and digital home phone service at www.cspire.com/fiber.
“We’re excited about bringing high-capacity fiber broadband services that rely on a transformational and truly revolutionary technology infrastructure that will boost home and business values, broaden entertainment opportunities, help expand the local economy and improve the quality of life for Ocean Springs residents,” said Ashley Phillips, general manager of C Spire Fiber.
With many individuals and families forced to shelter in their homes for nearly a year due to the public health crisis, high-speed internet access has become a necessity for consumers who desire remote work access, student distance learning, internet-based streaming TV home entertainment, telehealth services and low-latency gaming, Phillips added.
“Fiber’s symmetric speeds – for example up to 940 Megabits per second upstream and downstream – are particularly important for interactive learning, remote work and telehealth applications beyond video streaming or surfing the web, which rely on fast download only speeds,” Phillips said, noting that C Spire Fiber has 12 times faster uploads than Xfinity in Mississippi.
Unlike some other internet service providers, C Spire Fiber has no data caps, cancellation fees or long-term contracts. The C Spire division provides exact appointment times, world-class 24/7/365 customer service and over 99.99 percent reliability.
C Spire is spending $1 billion over the next three years– the largest capital investment in company history – to accelerate the deployment of all-fiber Gigabit broadband internet and the next generation of 5G wireless technology in key parts of its service area. C Spire Fiber has recently been rated as Mississippi’s fastest internet service provider by Ookla®, the global leader in internet testing-analysis.
Local government and business leaders lauded C Spire’s decision to invest in the future of Ocean Springs. “Good, reliable, high-quality and fast broadband internet is as important to quality of life, home values and new jobs as affordable and dependable electricity and potable water,” said Ocean Springs Mayor Shea Dobson. “We appreciate C Spire choosing our community for this game-changing investment.”
“We’re excited about any and all growth in technology that is coming to the Gulf Coast and the boost it will be to our local economy, business expansion and job creation,” said Adele Lyons, CEO of the 920-member Mississippi Gulf Coast Chamber of Commerce, Inc. “This type of technology infrastructure is what this community needs to grow and prosper. We appreciate C Spire making the investment and having the vision to move Mississippi and the Gulf Coast forward.”
For more information about C Spire’s fiber broadband rollout in Ocean Springs, go to www.cspire.com/oceansprings. To pre-order service, determine if a home is located in a planned construction area or learn more about C Spire Fiber and its products and services, go to www.cspire.com/fiber.
About C Spire Fiber
C Spire Fiber is a division of C Spire, a privately-owned telecommunications and technology company driven to deliver the best experiences in wireless, fiber internet, and business IT solutions such as internet, VoIP, cloud and managed services. Read more news releases and announcements at www.cspire.com/news. For more information, visit cspire.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
Telemedicine usage and telehealth initiatives are growing year over year, with the most recent surge in usage driven by the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Stay-at-home orders and social distancing compelled doctors and therapists to embrace telemedicine virtual visits for the safety of both patients and physicians. There has been steady growth in healthcare systems using broadband networks to quickly and more efficiently deliver access to electronic health records and hasten the assessment of imaging tests. Delivering the best medical care requires a 21st century network capable of delivering gigabit-class symmetrical speeds to hospitals, doctors’ offices, and individual households.
However, today’s telemedicine surge is only the tip of the digital health care iceberg. Telehealth and computational medicine initiatives that combine cloud applications, artificial intelligence, Big Data, the Internet of Things (IoT), and off-the-shelf consumer electronics offer the promise of improving individual health care, preventive medicine, and treatment of existing conditions. Data validation and integration from home devices such as blood pressure cuffs, activity trackers, or Apple Watches are now in the early stages of adoption. One can soon envision these enhancing patient care and improving outcomes by potentially providing early warning signs of everything from cardiac issues to virus infection.
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