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Federal Communications Commissioner Anna Gomez met recently with leaders from six electric cooperatives in Mississippi to discuss their work to expand high-speed internet access in the state and to learn about their top policy priorities.
The meeting, organized in partnership with NRECA, was held at the Oxford-based headquarters of North East Mississippi Electric Power Association. Attendees discussed co-op efforts to bring affordable, quality broadband to local communities, with more than 200 rural co-ops across the country working to bridge the digital divide.
The FCC supports those efforts through the Universal Service Fund and other measures to expand broadband access. The fund, paid for by contributions from telecommunications providers, helps provide high-speed internet service to rural areas and low-income consumers.
“We are honored to welcome FCC Commissioner Gomez to our office,” said Randall Abel, CEO of NE SPARC, the broadband division of NEMEPA. “Mississippi is on the forefront of investing in this technology, and we are proud to be part of the effort to bring reliable, high-speed internet to the people we serve.”
Closing the digital divide “is a top priority for electric cooperatives, and the FCC is an important partner in that effort,” NRECA CEO Jim Matheson said. “We appreciate Commissioner Gomez’s visit and look forward to continuing our partnership as we work to make broadband access a reality in every American community.”
The meeting touched on Mississippi electric co-ops’ successful push in 2019 to advance state legislation that let them offer high-speed internet service for the first time.
Since then, co-ops there have been hard at work expanding broadband networks, leveraging the co-op model to quickly and effectively serve their communities.
Across the state, Mississippi co-ops have made $1.39 billion in broadband investments since 2019, installed 41,914 miles of fiber, and signed up 230,788 subscribers, representing 49.3% of potential customers.
Gomez praised their progress, saying Mississippi is a great example for other states.
“I always am impressed with the work of electric cooperatives,” she said.
Gomez also got an update on MS Fiber LLC’s initiative to build middle mile infrastructure that connects local networks that serve homes, businesses and other end users to the core internet backbone.
Mississippi co-ops providing broadband have historically relied on third-party middle mile networks, a costlier option that gave them less control over those systems. To address those issues, a collection of 17 co-ops launched MS Fiber, which could start accepting its first customers in January.
Gomez and co-op leaders also discussed FCC funding programs, internet affordability, and issues with FCC broadband data collection and maps.
Co-ops at the meeting praised federal initiatives such as the Affordable Connectivity Program, which ran out of funding in 2024, and urged support for programs to make high-speed internet more accessible for low-income households.
They also complimented the FCC’s efforts to improve data collection and mapping of internet speeds and availability, which can guide federal investment in broadband infrastructure. But co-op leaders said the FCC must do more to ensure accuracy, pointing to concerns with the commission’s reliance on providers’ advertised internet speeds.
“Electric co-ops have always been about seeing a need and finding a way to address it,” Robison said. “From bringing electricity to rural Mississippi in the 1930s to bringing high speed internet to the most rural parts of Mississippi today, our goal has always been to make Mississippi better, and to improve the quality of life for all Mississippians.”
