By Jay Langston

Editor

United Communications recently announced the launch of their new interactive fiber campaign and website aimed at giving customers the ability to help determine when and where United will deploy fiber-to-the-home services in the future. To date, United has invested more than $90 million in their Middle Tennessee network and deployed fiber services to more than 5,000 locations across their Middle Tennessee service area. As a result, they can deliver high-speed Internet with speeds up to 1 GIGABIT (1,000 mbps), digital TV and phone services to residents across their mainly rural Middle Tennessee service area. One of the first locations to receive the improved Internet service was Henry Horton State Park.

United Communications "put fiber into the hotel," Henry Horton State Park Manager Ryan Jenkins said. "United paid for half and Chapel Hill paid the other half, which was about $10,000 total. The reasoning is that we are trying to get more corporate business. The success of the park is tied with the success of the city. The idea was to draw more corporate business. For every dollar they (visitors) spend in the park they spend $7 in the city. As far as we know, we are the only park in the nation with gig Internet."

Thus far, the high-speed Internet capability is quite popular. "We do a lot of training at Henry Horton State Park, and a lot of departments bring groups here," Jenkins said. "The opportunity seems great here. It allows for a lot greater use. We can do a video conference here that goes around world and not have any lag" (in video quality).

The ultimate goal of United's UniFi campaign is to identify the broadband needs of residents and businesses across the mid-state. The new United UniFi campaign website gives residents and businesses the power to pre-register to express interest in United fiber service. All that is required to register is a name, address, and product or service selection. The site provides customers with an interactive map broken down into three distinct zones: existing fiber service locations, pre-engineered fiber areas that will require an established customer backer goal to begin fiber-to-the-home construction, and general areas of fiber interest under review for future fiber deployment. Once a customer is registered as a "UniFi backer" they have the ability to easily share the information with friends and neighbors who may be interested in signing up for United fiber services.

"We are extremely proud of what we have been able to accomplish in order to bring fiber Internet and faster speeds to customers over the last few years, and we believe this new UniFi fiber campaign is going to be a game changer for future fiber deployment in our service area," said United Communications President and CEO, William Bradford. "As a company who is literally in the trenches of broadband deployment, we know there is an extremely high demand for bandwidth across the state and we realize the need for broadband is only going to continue to grow. The next critical step to expanding broadband is to give customers the power to express interest in new services and faster speeds, and then meet that demand head on. Simultaneously, while the company pushes fiber service deployment across the area, we will also continue to focus our efforts making faster Internet speeds an option where fiber service is not currently available today."

When asked when United Communications would expand into other areas of Marshall County, "we're already doing it," Bradford said. "We want to be the broadband solution for Marshall county. We're a 70-year-old regulated telephone company, and we really started hitting our stride last year" (regarding faster Internet).

The most recent expansion included the Belfast area. "We've built from Belfast back into Lewisburg," Bradford added. "We see that the Verona-Caney area should be included soon."

"We announced today that we are going next to the Unionville area," Bradford said. "We're letting consumers drive our expansion, which allows people to power where we go. We're in the second year of a five-year plan. We're trying to drive people to a (web) site that will allow people to send post cards to their neighbors.

To learn more about United Communications UniFi campaign or to become a UniFi backer, please visit fiber.united.net. You can also follow United Communications on Facebook or Twitter to stay up to date on fiber construction updates and information about United products and services.