Year in Review
9:29AM May 03, 2019
On June 1, 2019, Jackson Connect will have officially been installing
and connecting members to our high-speed fiber-optic internet for one year. It
has been an exciting and challenging year for the employees.
In order to serve all our 20,000 members, the fiber must be
strung throughout our service territory that covers 10 counties. As of now, we
are trying to get 15-16 miles of fiber placed per week. At this pace, barring
any unforeseen issues, we plan to have all our mainline construction complete throughout
our service territory by the end of 2020. In the meantime, as each zone’s
mainline construction becomes complete, we can begin pre-drop survey visits.
During this visit, our surveyors determine where the fiber devices should be
placed inside and outside of the home. Once this is complete our drop contractors
run the fiber to the home. The final
step, in-home installation, is completed by our broadband technician. The technician activates the service and
works with the member to make sure their devices are connected to the internet through
our high-speed fiber-optic network. All these steps do not happen in a day or even
a week. The graphic below shows an ideal timeline of how long the entire
process should take after you are contacted to have your pre-drop survey. With the
complexity of this process in mind, we are proud to announce we will have hit
our 1,000th connection close to our one-year mark.
Knowing the anticipation and need for our service, we
continue to ramp up our process to get more members connected. We are currently
hiring our 3rd Broadband Technician allowing us to increase the
number of installs we can do per day. In
the past year, we have added 6 positions to our fiber department totaling 11
employees for Jackson Connect. We will continue
to evaluate staffing needs, therefore, allowing us to add positions as necessary
to maximize production.
We know the wait can be frustrating, and not knowing when we will be in your area can be inconvenient, but rest assured, our entire cooperative is working hard to provide high-speed fiber-optic internet reliably, economically, and responsibly to all our members of Jackson County REMC as quickly and safely as possible.
