Jackson is a 'gigabit city'

Big River Communications president Kevin Cantwell declared Jackson to be a “gigabit city” in remarks at last week’s meeting of the Board of Aldermen.

A gigabit city, according to www.zdnet.com, means ultra-high-speed broadband is available citywide at speeds of one gigabit per second or faster.

Gov. Mike Parson, in a January speech to state lawmakers in Jefferson City, said extending broadband across the state was vital to economic growth.

Drilling down, broadband speed describes the rapidity at which a consumer may access an internet connection.

A shorthand way to describe gigabit speed is provided by www.highspeedinternet.com: "Gigabit internet is so fast that you could have 20 people streaming in 4K at the same time and using only half of available bandwidth."

More technically, one gigabit per second is the equivalent of 1,000 megabits per second.

Lost in the technical jargon yet?

Circle Fiber, Big River Communications' product, has a website, www.circlefiber.com, that attempts to explain in real terms what an ultra-fast connection means.

"Imagine chatting with your customers or suppliers via HD video conference or collaborating on a project with contributors across the globe in real time. Imagine new online billing applications that don't freeze or saving your work to the cloud in a blink of an eye without worrying about losing files in a computer crash."

Cantwell answered a few questions from the Southeast Missourian following his recent remarks to Jackson city leaders.

• You talk about ultra-high-speed-broadband enabling what you call "shadow accounting." What is that?

Cantwell: In the COVID age, more people are able to work from home, some of them permanently. Think of it this way: A person may work for a company in St. Louis or in Dallas, for example, and are counted as employees in those cities. But the payroll is coming to where the man or woman actually lives and works — such as Jackson or Cape Girardeau — thanks to what broadband, and especially ultra-fast broadband, provides. The revenue, the money, is coming to Southeast Missouri even if the job's title is listed as elsewhere. The payroll is being spent here at our grocery stores, our entertainment venues and our local businesses. I'm seeing this more and more, this shadow accounting, and fiber makes it possible.

• Your company has made possible free wireless internet in Cape Girardeau in the Marquette Tech District. When will you extend the same service to Jackson?

Cantwell: We're planning to bring it to City Park, to uptown Jackson and to the area around Jackson High School's stadium (The Pit). We promised this and we're waiting on the city to acquire the necessary equipment for tie-in to our network. Mayor (Dwain) Hahs said he'd like to see the city tap American Rescue Plan funds for this.

• You told the aldermanic council you did not apply for nor take any Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) money during COVID. Why not?

Cantwell: I've had people tell me I'm stupid, that it was free money given to everybody. Well, it just didn't feel right. I'm OK if companies took the money to survive the pandemic and keep providing their employees benefits. Nevertheless, Circle Fiber continues to grow. We're installing in Jackson and north Cape Girardeau, and within the next 45 days we'll be in Poplar Bluff.

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