Alabama made a first major step toward its goal of achieving statewide broadband connectivity Wednesday, July 11, as the first hub in the Alabama Fiber Network went live near the Cullman Electric Cooperative substation in Fairview.
Speaking at an event held at the Cotton Creek venue in downtown Cullman, Gov. Kay Ivey touted the significant strides which have been made in rural broadband connectivity since she assumed office in 2017.
“When I first came into office, Alabama was the 47th state in the country for broadband internet. Today we are twenty-fourth,” Ivey said. “In 2024 we must strive for full connectivity. Folks, rest assured this is a top priority of the Ivey administration.”
The AFN is a public/private sector coalition which currently involves eight electric co-ops, their subsidiaries and key industry partners such as Ciena and Arista. Once completed, its Middle Mile network will span more than 5,000 miles and will deliver reliable high speed internet to each of the state’s 67 counties. Once completed, the network is predicted to generate more than 4,100 new jobs with a total economic impact of $657 million.
Cullman Electric Co-op CEO Tim Culpepper said the group formed rather organically as the company began to grow its own Sprout Fiber Network. He explained that while it was possible to access the existing fiber optic lines along the I-65 corridor, making those connections was cumbersome and came with reliability issues.
Culpepper said thinking about internet speed and reliability was similar to the “six degrees from Kevin Bacon” game.
Only a few select primary data centers — such as the one located in Atlanta, Georgia — are able to deliver the type of robust bandwidth the AFN now boasts. It is possible to access them through secondary data centers like those located in Nashville or Chattanooga, Tennessee, but the more degrees of separation between a data center and the fiber line’s final destination, the slower the internet speed.
“We just assumed that because we live here right in the heart of North Alabama, there would be plenty of connectivity, but we found out that just wasn’t the case,” Culpepper said. “We were just in a blank spot, as far as that goes, and then we found out a lot of the other co-ops were in the same boat.”
The initial deployment phase of what AFN describes as its “backbone” for the middle mile system, follows the I-65 corridor from Madison to Montgomery County with internet exchange points at both the Atlanta and Nashville data centers. The next phase of the project — scheduled to go live next month — will include Limestone and Jackson counties as well as a significant portion of Northwest Alabama. Ciena CTO and founder Steve Alexander said you could think of this portion of the system as a type of “super highway” capable of delivering internet speeds which could allow up to 200 high definition films to be downloaded in under a second.
Local “last-mile providers” are able to connect to the backbone via centralized points of presence such as the one in Fairview. AFN CEO Terry Metze said this type of centralized network will allow for significantly reduced operating costs for those providers which, in turn, will free up more resources to grow their networks more quickly.
“Take Sprout for instance. They run the fiber to people to connect them back to those hubs in Atlanta or Nashville and they may be paying somewhere around $15,000 every month for that service, then they have to have a backup. When we get done, they may be paying about $5,000. With more cash on hand, they will be able to spread out even more,” Metze said.
Metze said AFN is anticipating to have the entire state connected by early 2026, but that the most significant section of the middle mile backbone would be online as early as February.
It is difficult to see the decision to select the Fairview location as the first point of presence to be connected to the AFN as anything other than a nod to Alabama Rep. Randall Shedd, who has been a committed champion for rural broadband expansion throughout the state. Shedd said 2019’s HB400 which allowed electricity providers to install broadband services as his “signature piece of legislation.” He recalled the bill was approved at the end of a more-than-four-hour filibuster on a Thursday, when many lawmakers were long past ready to go home.
“We knew it was important to unlock this opportunity for power companies and co-ops to be in the business. It took all day on Thursday to get the bill passed out of the House. There were four motions to carry the bill over, which would have effectively killed it, but people stuck with me even though everybody was ready to go home,” Shedd said.
He remained humble, but said the nod came along with a sense of validation after the years of advocacy he has spent pushing for a more connected Alabama.
“I don’t want to sound boastful, but I do appreciate them coming to my community, I’m always tickled to have most of the state come to Cullman,” Shedd said.