Community Hotspots

To increase public access to high-speed internet service, Pulaski Electric System Energize is installing strategically placed public Wi-Fi hotspots for the people and communities of rural Giles County, Tennessee.

Download Project Summary Materials

Background

Pulaski Electric System (PES) is the electric provider for much of Giles County and its subsidiary, PES Energize, has been a broadband provider in some portions of Giles County since 2007. As a nonprofit utility, PES is committed to the community it serves and is continuously looking for ways to help its citizens enrich their quality of life.

The pilot project areas are small rural communities within the PES Energize existing fiber footprint, where high-speed internet access is inadequate or not available. PES is installing community-centric Wi-Fi hotspots in Lynnville, Elkton and Minor Hill, providing rural residents access to quality internet service.

Access to public Wi-Fi technology in these communities can be transformative, enabling unserved and underserved citizens to connect their connected devices for online needs, like banking or telehealth needs, and school-aged children are able to connect their school-issued Chromebooks to help them with school assignments.

Overview

The pilot project is an extension of the existing public Wi-Fi system located in downtown Pulaski. Installations in the three rural towns as part of the pilot project include Wi-Fi hotspots that use mesh technology to connect to each other and fiber-optic point-to-point connections for unified management.

These methods provide a wide range of coverage within each community. For internet access, citizens can visit an area where the public Wi-Fi system is available. This pilot project provides insight for other groups or businesses to adopt the same vision of unity as PES Energize and implement a similar system of Wi-Fi access points for connectivity to the internet in their own communities.

Objectives

The success of this pilot project is measured by:

Number of internet users per month
Amount of internet used per month
Community feedback

This information provides PES with information on how often the Wi-Fi spots are used by community members and their feedback on the project’s implementation.

“We understand the need for high-speed internet in our rural areas and we hope residents in the area will find this to be very beneficial.”

Chelsea Ramsey, PES Energize Lead CSR

Key Levers for Success

There are two key success factors of this pilot project:

PES has experience implementing a similar pilot project with this type of technology.
The mayors of the three towns receiving Wi-Fi hotspots are excited to have this important connectivity technology in their communities.