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Clay Fisher
Plans to bring more fiber optic internet services into rural Stephens County are in the works with a completion date set in 2024.
That will mean faster speeds for activities such as streaming, uploading, and downloading as well as more reliable services for property owners in the vicinity of the new lines.
TruVista director of community relations and business development Andrew Seaver spoke to county commissioners Tuesday evening as the county and TruVista moved toward a memorandum of understanding about the company’s plans.
Speaking Wednesday morning to The Toccoa Record, Seaver said the line installations are dependent upon getting a grant award from the state as Gov. Brian Kemp had allotted $300 million from the federal government’s American Rescue Plan for broadband internet services.
Seaver said that with the grant, which he anticipates will be awarded in January, 2022, some 125 miles of fiber optic lines will be installed in Stephens County.
“We like (the lines) to be 75 to 80 percent buried and then the remainder is on telephone poles,” Seaver said.
Seaver said that when such services become available, TruVista’s marketing team will notify property owners about the option to receive the services.
“As soon as those addresses are live or released within a drop distance than they can be installed,” Seaver said.
The memorandum does not commit the county to anything.
Rather, Seaver said, it puts the two entities on the same page about what’s coming.
“It sets the background so that everyone understands what’d expected,” Seaver said.
If TruVista gets the grant, Seaver said that construction will begin several months later with completion expected in the second quarter of 2024.
“We are excited to partner with the county,” Seaver said.
Clay Fisher of Toccoa, TruVista director of retail and revenue for Georgia, said that TruVista currently provides fiber-optic to some Stephens County residents such as around Lake Yonah and down Prather Bridge Road.
Those lines came about due to running lines into Rabun County.
“We had to build a transport line into Clayton,” Fisher said.
Fisher said that in addition to internet accessibility and TV streaming, fiber optic offers homeowners the ability to put many of the electrical capabilities in homes such as doorbells and home security.
“They can have phone, security, Tv, internet…or they can just have stand alone internet,” Fisher said.
Fisher said speed guarantees are not affected because with fiber optic the distance between the homeowner and the plant where the services come from no longer factors into the speed.
Inclement weather interruptions also are fewer.
“You’ll be on a fiber optic that’s not subject to lightning,” Fisher said.
Stephens County commissioners unanimously approved the memorandum of understanding with TruVista.