LaFayette, GA – Nearly 3,400 homes and businesses in unserved and underserved parts of Walker County will, for the first time, be equipped for high-speed fiber internet.
The nearly $11.3 million project to provide fiber internet to LaFayette, Kensington, Noble, Villanow and nearby parts of Walker County is expected to be completed by 2024. It is the result of a public–private partnership between the county and Kinetic.
The county will use $6.3 million in grant money from the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds program, part of the federal American Rescue Plan, to enable Kinetic to lay 323 miles of underground optical fiber cable. Kinetic will invest more than $5 million.
Fiber internet technology transmits data through hair-sized glass fibers at speeds exceeding other broadband technologies.
“This project will serve many of the unserved and underserved in our community,” county Board of Commissioners Chairman Shannon Whitfield said at a town hall forum at LaFayette-Walker County Public Library Monday night.
“It’s difficult to accept there are still places in the county where the internet can only be accessed for school or work by using a dial-up modem, if there is any internet connection at all,” he said.
State Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, said, “Access to rural broadband has become essential. It will be just as important as electricity and water. Our children need it for online learning opportunities, our farmers and small businesses need it to run their operations, industry needs it to grow, and our residents need it for telemedicine, grocery shopping and to stay connected with the community.”
“When we say, ‘High Speed for Here,’ we mean LaFayette, Kensington, Noble and Villanow and neighboring parts of Walker County,” Kinetic state operations President Michael Foor said. “We mean equal upload and download speeds and a strong, reliable connection to meet this important community’s evolving demands for business and entertainment.”
Households and businesses may visit GoKinetic.com to find out if they are eligible for a speed upgrade and learn how Kinetic can meet their home or business needs. They can also visit or call the Kinetic Connection Center retail store at 615 S. Thornton Ave. in Dalton. Its phone number is 706-279-7000.
Kinetic’s Walker County fiber project is part of a $2 billion multiyear capital investment strategy to dramatically expand gigabit fiber service across Kinetic’s 18-state footprint.
Kinetic’s superfast, reliable fiber connections in Walker County empower residential customers to gig speeds to navigate the internet safely from home with no lag times while they work, participate in virtual classrooms or stream entertainment services. Businesses from small to enterprise size can take advantage of the fiber-backed network to deploy solutions that make their companies more efficient and profitable such as OfficeSuite UC® and SD-WAN.
To learn more, visit GoKinetic.com.
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