East MS Electric Power Association awarded grant to fund high-speed internet service

The East Mississippi Electric Power Association was awarded a $5,425,826 grant by the Mississippi Public Utilities Staff. 

This grant will fund high-speed internet service to residents of the Southeast Lauderdale, Northeast Clarke and west Kemper County.

The grant became available after the state legislature passed the Mississippi Electric Cooperatives Broadband COVID-19 earlier this year.

“We will begin work immediately. We will have to purchase materials and software,” says EMEPA CEO Randy Carroll. “We will have to get crews on the ground to begin the work. As soon as that fiber is installed on the main lines, we will begin installing services. We will need huts at the sub station locations with electronic equipment in those huts. We’ll need fiber, routers, boxes in people’s homes- everything it takes to get from the point of takeoff.”

EMEPA says they will add $8.3 million to the grant, bringing the total to $13.7 million for the project. The project is expected to begin in August.