As soon as the holidays are over, Batesville will see a concerted effort to encourage householders to pre-register for C Spire’s ultra high speed fiber optic Internet.

Watch for yard signs, door hangers, banners and people going from door to door to encourage neighborhood or “fiberhood” —  interest. The town has been divided into five fiberhoods that are now competing to reach pre-registration goals of 35 and 45 percent of households. Right now, signup percentages in Batesville’s five fiberhoods range from 0 to 3 percent, so there is much work to be done.

Phase One of Batesville’s Feed the Speed campaign brought us selection as one of nine cities among 33 in Mississippi to be selected for this fiberhood competition.

Now, we begin Phase Two — pre-registration. It simply requires a $10 refundable deposit paid by credit or debit card through the cspire.com web site. If you decide you don’t want the service, or if the service does not come to fruition, you get your deposit back.

But as Phase Two begins, there are a couple of issues that need to be clarified. The first is that neither city government, the Panola Partnership, The Panolian nor any other entity that has embraced C Spire’s initiative to make this ultra-high-speed Internet is playing favorites over other media providers.

All of the foregoing would as enthusiastically embrace — with concessions and promotion — any other media provider’s proposal to provide 1 Gbps service to Batesville households.
The second issue is that it must be understood that this is about economic development, in the same way that the community provides encouragement and concessions to lure industries and other businesses to town.

Sure, there’s more speed for games and videos, but the overwhelming advantage — among many — of 1 Gbps Internet is the tool it will become for creative minds who understand how to utilize its speed to create business, educational opportunities, motivational information, and so much more.

Don’t take my word for it. Go online and read about what’s happening in Kansas City and Austin as 1 Gbps Internet service reaches homes on those cities. And then imagine how revolutionary and imaginative is C Spire’s proposal to provide the same service to small cities in Mississippi.