![]() The service provider began building more than $750,000 worth of new fiber infrastructure in other unserved and underserved portions of its system. “There has been a learning curve to lift our marketing efforts up to a point where we could get recognition and become the first choice.”Īs BRMEMC looks for ways to expand and improve its broadband offerings and other value-added services, it achieved several milestones in the past two years. He adds that although BRMEMC felt it had better service than traditional telcos, the challenge was to get the word out about its services. “It takes marketing and understanding some of those things that, as a co-op, we traditionally never had to think about.” “It took a long time to get to the point where you start to look at things differently – where you are in a competitive market,” Frizzell says. Like other electric cooperatives that have launched broadband, BRMEMC acknowledges broadband is quite different from the electric utility business, in which for many years it enjoyed a near monopoly. Georgia Senate Bill 2, which gives statutory authority to the state’s 41 electric cooperatives to provide broadband services, encouraged BRMEMC to expand and upgrade its broadband network. Service in Georgia is generally limited to the incorporated areas of Blairsville, Murphy, Hiawassee and Young Harris. Initially offering residential customers a mixture of DSL and dial-up internet services, BRMEMC has rapidly expanded its FTTH platform.ī, the operating broadband unit, continues to extend its FTTH service area. “Whereas a lot of co-ops eased into the business by using the fiber for the electric grid, our focus was to provide broadband.” “Our driver was that our members wanted service,” says Daniel Frizzell, director of engineering for BRMEMC. Unlike other co-ops that installed fiber to satisfy supervisory control and data acquisition requirements for the electric grid, BRMEMC’s broadband move was based on a simple principle: supply service in places that have none. The provider currently offers electric and FTTH broadband services to Fannin, Towns and Union counties in northern Georgia and in Clay and Cherokee counties in western North Carolina.īRMEMC’s broadband journey is far from typical. BRMEMC, founded in 1938, is a member-owned electric cooperative headquartered in Young Harris, Georgia, serving more than 53,000 member-customers. Several electric co-ops in the Southeast have contacted BRMEMC for advice about how to deploy a broadband network. And they don't stop working until everyone is back on.Electric cooperatives have given hope to the rural broadband market, and Blue Ridge Mountain Electric Membership Corporation (BRMEMC), in the broadband industry for more than 17 years, has earned the right to call itself a pioneer in that emerging space. ![]() However, when the extent of power outage warrants it, our crews do work 24/7 to restore power. For example, we may reach an area only to find out we will need a boat to reach a span of wire or that there are massive trees down in our way. So, if you can see anything unusual, like a tree down on a line, and you can give us that information and location when you call, it is helpful.Īdditionally, following large storms, with thousands of damaged locations, new damage being reported daily, and the changing scope of work and conditions, there is simply not a reliable way to predict when we’ll reach certain areas. Not knowing the exact scope of work needed until we arrive on the scene is the primary reason we are not able to estimate the time it will take to get to specific locations. However, it is not uncommon for us to find, when our crews arrive at a location to repair the damage, that the scope of damage is not exactly what was expected. Right after a storm hits, we begin assessing the damage based on a combination of remote monitoring and customer calls. Here’s how the power restoration process works in such a situation: When there is extensive or widespread damage, there are too many variables at play for us to estimate when we’ll be in specific locations. ![]()
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