Greatful: Hotspot Work Has Begun

Jeff Lee, Little T Broadband

Happy Thanksgiving!

The South Macon communities have one more thing for which to be grateful today. After several months of work on a grant proposal and project planning, Little T Broadband is happy to report that grant funds have been officially received, and that we have launched the South Macon Community Center Hotspot project. The first site work was completed on Monday afternoon, November 22nd.

As mentioned in our article from October, Little T Broadband was selected to receive a grant through the Southwestern and Land of Sky Regional Commissions for creation of public WiFI hotspots at three community facilities in South Macon. The Otto and Scaly Mountain Community Centers and the Sky Valley-Scaly Mountain Volunteer Fire and Rescue station will be connected to fiber broadband by Balsam West as part of the South Macon Broadband Expansion project. The funding made available to Little T through the Regional Commissions from the State of North Carolina Student Connect program will allow installation and activation of the WiFi and electronics equipment needed to create public hotspots and fully utilize the new high-speed broadband connections coming to these facilities. A primary goal of this project is to provide much needed relief to families with school-aged children in the Otto and Scaly areas without access to high-speed internet.

Work began this past Monday with Crawford Electric at the Otto Community Center who installed a new dedicated electrical circuit. Little T has entered into an agreement with Wired Inc., a Franklin-based computer and IT services company, to install and configure the hotspot equipment. Technicians from Wired Inc. will begin cable installation work at the Scaly Community Center the week after Thanksgiving, and will move on to the other two facilities as work progresses.

We are excited to get this project off the ground, and hope to have all three facilities connected and operational by the end of January, 2022. The organizations active at these facilities are looking forward to providing student and community services not possible without broadband connections. Thanks to all who are participating to help make this possible.

Please stay tuned for further progress updates on this project.