C Spire, on a mission to move Mississippi forward through technology, quietly launched the first 5G millimeter wave fixed wireless service last month with the deployment of super-fast broadband internet service to residents in a Harrison County subdivision near the city of Gulfport.
C Spire’s support for aggressive broadband deployment, including 5G millimeter wave fixed wireless service, is part of its Tech Movement initiative launched in 2017 and designed to leverage the firm’s technology investments to help transform its service areas and improve the quality of life for everyone. Other elements include tech workforce development and investments in tech innovation to stimulate economic growth and broader societal impact in the 21st century.
The 5G millimeter wave fixed wireless service, launched in early December, is being offered in the 84-home Landon Place subdivision and served by a nearby C Spire cell site using 28 GHz equipment from the company’s partner and 5G millimeter wave innovator, Phazr, a JMA Wireless company.
Results have been successful with residents connected to the service enjoying download speeds of up to 750 Megabits per second (Mbps), upload speeds of up to 600 Mbps with latency as low as 8 milliseconds, according to C Spire President Stephen Bye.
“We use areas like this residential subdivision to continue our efforts to deliver on the promise of moving Mississippi forward with ground-breaking internet access for consumers and businesses,” Bye said. “In our state, broadband technology is the path to a stronger economy, more jobs and a healthier lifestyle.”
Bye said the company plans to deploy fixed wireless internet service to thousands of consumers and businesses across the state over the next several years as part of the Tech Movement initiative and to meet the growing needs for high-quality, fast internet access and to boost the Magnolia State’s $108.5 billion economy.
“We’re excited about C Spire bringing this next generation technology to our area,” said Harrison County Supervisor Angel Kibler-Middleton, whose district includes the subdivision. “We know that broadband internet access can boost home values, attract more investment and jobs and improve overall quality of life.”
C Spire, a Mississippi-based technology and telecommunications services company, operates the nation’s 7th largest wireless communications unit and is one of the nation’s leading broadband and cloud service providers. In addition to fixed wireless broadband, the firm offers consumers and businesses voice, video, home, internet, wireless, business services, cloud and managed IT solutions.
Phazr is partnering with C Spire to develop affordable 5G millimeter wave solutions using 5G client devices and base stations to extend the Mississippi company’s extensive 8,700 route miles of fiber infrastructure across its network, much of it at the edge of many neighborhoods, towns, cities and counties.
“5G RAN technology is the engine behind C Spire’s fixed wireless deployment and provides them with a new, flexible option that can be offered across any part of their footprint, including the many hard to reach, less accessible areas,” said Farooq Khan, president of the Phazr unit at JMA Wireless.
