LINCOLN, Ala. – Coosa Valley Electric Cooperative has officially announced its new broadband subsidiary, Coosa Valley Technologies.
CVEC unveiled its newest subsidiary during a special event on Wednesday at Talladega Superspeedway. The event was also live streamed on Facebook for those
“Its mission is to provide our members, and eventually other customers, faster broadband and better service,” said CVEC General Manager Leland Fuller.
CVEC’s Manager of Marketing and Member Services Jon Cullimore, kicked off the event by welcoming guests from around the county and state, while also introducing the CVEC board members from each district.
“Today is the result of two years of research, planning, preparation and a lot of hard work,” said CVEC Manager of Marketing and Member Services Jon Cullimore.
The cooperative was founded in 1939 by people who felt they were not getting a proper return on their investment in local utilities.
“History is now repeating itself with people in rural counties having less access to high quality internet service,” said Fuller. “Once again, Coosa Valley has answered the call.”
The process began two years ago with the initiation of feasibility studies. Later, the cooperative presented the idea of broadband service to its membership during its annual meeting back in September.
A record crowd attended the annual meeting, approving the idea of broadband service to those who currently have other CVEC services.
The company will operate from its new facility the cooperative began construction on in February, which will also house Coosa Valley Propane.
The company will offer plans beginning at 300 megabits per second (Mbps), priced $59.99 a month, all the way up to one gigabit per second (equivalent to 1,000 Mbps), priced $99.99 a month. It will also have a plan for 500 mbps that will cost $79.99 a month.
“We will be able to provide speeds up to 10 gigs for commercial entities,” said Fuller.
According to the Talladega County Economic Development Authority Director Calvin Miller, the internet service offered by Coosa Valley will be a great recruitment tool for commercial and industrial development for the county. The new service will allow for the rural parts of the county to have faster and more reliable Internet service better suited for industrial purposes.
“This will make Talladega County more competitive when it comes to having companies look at us,” said Miller.
Schools throughout the county will benefit from better broadband services. Over the past year, Talladega County School met virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however there were many obstacles the school system faced, when it came to reliable internet for students to complete coursework.
”This new broadband system in rural areas will make the school system much more effective,” said Miller.
During the event, Talladega County Revenue Commissioner Cindy Pennington read a proclamation from State Representative Steve Hurst, commending CVEC for all their work on developing Coosa Valley Technologies.
Pennington, who is also a CVEC customer said she and her family are excited for the new services CVEC will soon be offering.
The first group of members will be connected as early as September 2021.
“Everywhere we have power lines, we will be serving those consumers,” said Cullimore.”Those areas include parts of Talladega, St. Clair, Shelby, Calhoun, Clay and Etowah counties.”
A third of the cooperatives members reside in Talladega County.
The project providing access to Coosa Valley Electric’s entire service area is expected to take nearly four years to complete.