In recent weeks, The Daily Leader has published several articles about the negotiations between C Spire and the city of Brookhaven last year to bring next-generation Fiber to the Home Internet technology and related services to residents and businesses in this Southwest Mississippi community.

Unfortunately, the articles have told only one side of the story.  This letter serves as our attempt to set the record straight and help your readers and the community understand what actually happened. None of our comments should be interpreted as criticism or lack of respect and appreciation for the difficult, challenging and important role that your city leaders play in building a resilient community, now and over the long term, and improving the quality of life for everyone.

Initiation and timing 

C Spire was initially approached last summer by a group of business people and Mayor Joe Cox who said the city was interested in partnering with us to bring Fiber to the Home services to Brookhaven. Those discussions resulted in multiple conference calls, a meeting at our corporate headquarters and finally a face-to-face working session with the Brookhaven Board of Aldermen to review the first, and easiest, step in the process — a franchise agreement, which governs the terms and conditions for our provision of services.

There was nothing unusual about this sequence of events or about our request to keep preliminary discussions confidential until both sides reached an agreement. If an agreement had been reached, the franchise ordinance would have been introduced at a noticed Board of Aldermen meeting and remained on file with the City Clerk for public inspection at least two weeks before any final vote at a subsequent regularly scheduled meeting. Therefore, nothing about the proposed franchise ordinance would or could be kept secret or confidential from the news media or general public.

Franchise terms 

It was at this early working session stage that some municipal officials, including the city attorney and public works staff, expressed concerns about some provisions of the agreement related to right-of-way access, the length of the agreement and service coverage. We worked diligently to explain each one of the provisions, their legality, the city’s rights and authority and how these terms were fair, reasonable and helped justify the millions of dollars that C Spire would have to invest to bring the benefits of 21st century technology to Brookhaven. It should also be noted that these are standard provisions in all of the franchise agreements that C Spire has forged with other cities participating in our program.  The agreements are public record and available from the individual cities.

“Crowdsourcing” Model 

On multiple occasions, our representatives also described in detail the “crowdsourcing” model we have successfully used with other cities that features local government cooperation and support, expedited permitting, consumer enthusiasm and community engagement to drive adoption. After the working session, we were expecting a formal response from city officials.  Several weeks later, we learned from local business leaders that the city was no longer interested in participating in the program.

In the end, Brookhaven city leaders chose not to bring a franchise ordinance up for a vote or take the next steps to pursue the opportunity. This was obviously their prerogative, and we respect that.

Brookhaven is important to C Spire.  As a Mississippi-based company, we trace our roots to this region. At the same time, we have chosen to move Mississippi forward by making a huge investment in building the infrastructure necessary to provide Fiber to the Home to communities like Brookhaven. However, our business model requires certain terms and conditions because of the enormity of our financial commitment. Without these terms and conditions, we simply cannot justify the investment needed to bring Fiber to the Home to these communities.

We continue to believe that ultra-high speed broadband can be a catalyst for technology investment, economic growth and job creation in Mississippi. The proof is in the results. In less than 18 months, we’ve turned up commercial service in three Mississippi cities and expect to activate service in several other cities by the end of this year.  It’s an approach we hope to replicate in many more cities across our state.

Suzy Hays is senior vice president of consumer markets for C Spire.