January 26, 2007 -- Citizens, a full-service communications, and entertainment provider headquartered in Floyd Virginia, announced today that the veteran Communication Company is in the process of completing a 19 mile fiber optic build that will
extend high speed data services from Claudville, VA to the North Carolina Line and to the Patrick Henry Community College in Stuart and the Industrial Park in Patrick County.
“This construction will give area users needing high spectrum data transport services the ability to send and receive large volumes of information all across the county,� says Gerald Gallimore, General Manager of Citizens.
“This project has been in the planning stages for several months,� says Gallimore. Our plans include a connect to Mid Atlantic Broadband at the Community College, and a connection to the Surry Telephone Membership Corporation at the North Carolina state line. The completion of this project will close a vital section of a much larger fiber optic transport route in Southwest Virginia and Northwest North Carolina.� These routes are much needed to encourage Economic development in the region by providing a redundant carrier class, communication transport network.
“Today’s industries need these redundant fiber routes to transport large amounts of data� says Robert Weeks Marketing Manager for Citizens. We’re not talking about today’s high-speed Internet connections, we’re talking Gigabit and beyond as a starting point for this type of application. In high spectrum data communications, a Gigabit is one billion bits, or 1,000,000,000 (that is, 109) bits. It's commonly used for measuring the amount of data that is transferred in a second between two telecommunication points. That’s pretty fast when you consider that a typical high speed Internet connection in the average home is about 768Kilobits to 3 Megabits per second,� says Weeks.
Citizens’ first goal is to get the larger users on line and operational. As the project expands, plans will be developed for residential customers wanting our more traditional high-speed Internet and voice services. Residential customers and businesses interested in receiving Citizens high speed services should send name, address, and phone number to robertweeks@citizens.coop. Those submitting requests will be the first to receive notification when service is available.
Citizens, a regional, full-service communications and entertainment provider is headquartered in Floyd Virginia, with a satellite office in Fort Chiswell Virginia. Citizens provides video, voice and data services to numerous rural areas throughout Southwest Virginia. Visit www.citizens.coop for additional information, or contact Robert Weeks, Marketing Manager, at robertweeks@citizens.coop, or call (540) 745-2111.
