NE SPARC Celebrates Construction Completion to NEMEPA members

NE SPARC announced a milestone achievement recently — the completion of the construction of its fiber-optic network.

Northern District Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley joined the NE SPARC team for the celebration at their offices on Thursday.

“None of us were here 80 some odd years ago when North East announced that everybody in the territory had electricity, but that was a historic day. This is also a day that is important and historic. North East is the first multi-county system in the state to provide service to all their members,” Presley said of NE SPARC.

NE SPARC is now available in all of the coverage zones, bringing the option for broadband to all North East Mississippi Electric Power Association members. Fiber is the fastest, most reliable internet connection available.

NE SPARC offers speeds of up to 1 gigabit, which is enough bandwidth to power a business or household.

Fiber internet from NE SPARC has now passed 28,500 locations with 7,278 customers who are using the service and another 360 customers who have signed an order and are waiting to be connected.

Forty-four percent of North East’s membership are customers of NE SPARC.

“When we were planning, I told the board if anyone in the state can do this the people at North East Power can, but it wasn’t easy,” said Keith Hayward, CEO North East Mississippi Electric Power Association and NE SPARC.

“Our members wanted broadband and fought for it. It was only 24 months ago we were announcing our plans and now we have fiber with light to every single location that wants it — all 28,000 of our locations across 4 counties.”

NE SPARC will begin the process to serve parts of Pontotoc and Union counties now that their service territory is complete.

Staff report