Kinetic to lay over 440 miles of fiber optic cables in Colquitt County

(UI) – Fiber internet provider Kinetic plans to make 70% of Colquitt County, or more than 17,000 homes and businesses, “fiber ready” next year in a $32.5 million public-private partnership, the company said.

Some 40% of the county, or more than 9,700 homes and businesses, including in county seat Moultrie, are already eligible for Kinetic’s fiber broadband, which provides internet speeds of up to 8 gigabits per second.

Kinetic plans to lay more than 440 miles of optical fiber cable as it works its way through communities to bring high-speed internet to customers. It has already laid more than 180 miles of fiber cable.

The company will use about $21.4 million in state grant money from the federal government. The money comes from the U.S. Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds program, part of the federal American Rescue Plan COVID-19 stimulus package.

Kinetic will invest $11.1 million and cover any cost overruns.

The company plans to add nearly 7,400 more customers with the new construction.

The communities benefiting from the new construction are Moultrie, Berlin, Doerun, Funston and Norman Park. Parts of Moultrie, Berlin and Doerun already have the high-speed fiber service available to eligible homes and businesses.

Kinetic’s ultrafast fiber-optic broadband lets users download and upload, equally in both directions, at up to 8 gigabits per second, or 8,000 megabits per second, providing what is widely known as “next-generation access” because of its significant speed and quality upgrade.

The median download speed in Georgia is about 187 megabits a second, and the median upload speed is about 26 megabits a second, Ookla’s Speedtest indicates. Ookla is an independent web testing and network diagnostics company that compares internet data speeds across the country.

Kinetic’s Colquitt County fiber project is part of a $2 billion multiyear capital investment strategy by Kinetic to dramatically expand gigabit fiber service across the company’s 18-state footprint.

 

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