EMEPA looks to provide high-speed internet in the future thanks to new law

While the East Mississippi Electric Power Company has been providing services to our area for eighty years, thanks to a new law, they are hoping to provide high speed internet.

“The majority of our service area is rural, and so a lot of our members do not have that access today,” said their Director of Marketing & Communications, Julie Boles.

The new law signed by Governor Phil Bryant will allow local power cooperatives to provide high-speed internet. However, Boles urged the public to exercise patience.

“Right now, we are in the process of having feasibility studies done—long-range and short-term planning—to get a greater sense of the challenges and the costs that offering broadband services to our members would entail.”

With most of EMEPA’s four county reach being rural, the company certainly sees the need for those communities. They currently provide service for Lauderdale, Kemper, Clarke, and Winston counties.

“We believe that greater access to broadband and high-speed internet services would benefit our members substantially in terms of economic development, education, healthcare opportunities—its really endless,” said Boles.

EMEPA said they will update their members all throughout the process and that providing high-speed internet is the long-term goal.