Alabama has one of the lowest percentages of residents with available hard-line broadband service in the nation. C Spire plans to change that.
On Tuesday, the Mississippi-based broadband company announced its third acquisition in Alabama, purchasing Harbor Communications in Mobile. The move, company officials said during an online press event, would allow C Spire to greatly expand its fiber optic services, and the services available to Mobile and Baldwin counties, in the coming months.
“Throughout its 32-year history, C Spire has grown both organically and through strategic acquisitions,” said CEO Hu Meena. “Harbor is a great addition to our family and solidifies even further our efforts to become the dominant market player in Alabama and the Southeast region.”
Meena said during the event that Harbor will continue to service its existing customers in Alabama and those customers will see no changes to their services or prices.
Instead, the acquisition, Meena said, provides C Spire the opportunity to utilize Harbor’s existing infrastructure and build it out to meet the demand for hard-line, reliable broadband services in nearby communities, particularly in Baldwin County.
“We see an opportunity for growth in Alabama,” Meena said. “Today’s acquisition is about Mobile and Baldwin and providing services to those areas. This is our third acquisition in the state and we will have spent millions and millions of dollars not just on acquisitions but on build-outs of existing lines.”
Meena noted that C Spire was the fastest expanding broadband company in Mississippi last year, and its success forced faster growth from the bigger names in the industry. All of that worked to provide the people of Mississippi with more options and better service.
C Spire’s managing director in Alabama, Ben Moncrief, said recent figures from a third-party group found that just 29 percent of Alabamians have access to hard-line broadband services. In Mississippi, that number is near 45 percent. Georgia and Tennessee are also above 40 percent.
“To put a point on that, we’re two touchdowns behind in Alabama,” Moncrief said.
The acquisition of Harbor continues C Spire’s rapid growth in Alabama. Already, thanks to acquisition and build-out projects already on the books, the company has expansion projects active in the Birmingham area and around Jasper.
