News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Smith County officials are seeing progress in North Central Telephone Cooperative’s broadband expansion project.
Mayor Jeff Mason anticipates service to be available to Dixon Springs residents later this summer.
“At my house, the underground has actually been run. We’re just waiting on them to hook into the main line,” Mason said. “I know North Central in the Dixon Springs area is also doing some work, and I’m sure Twin Lakes is also pushing that. They’re working and progressing, so we’re hoping maybe by summer we’ll have it to a lot of the county.”
Smith and Trousdale Counties were selected to receive nearly $3.3 million in expanded broadband availability through NCTC prior to Mason being elected last August.
Mason said Smith County has an advantage in having multiple broadband providers within county lines.
“We’d love for them to do more and also for our electric co-op, we’d love for them to be asked to get in the game as well,” Mayor said. “We’re hoping that there’s some restrictions released on that and they can get back in and help that too, because a lot of your cooperatives as far as the electric side already have the infrastructure in place. So it’d be a quick fix for those guys.”
The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development announced earlier this month that Smith, Jackson, and Putnam Counties would receive $1.2 million in expanded broadband coverage through Twin Lakes. A start date for that project has not been announced at this time.
