Georgia's Habersham electric cooperative gets into the 1 Gbps FTTH game

Habersham EMC (HEMC), a member-owned electric cooperative serving northeast Georgia, is the latest service provider to introduce a 1 Gbps fiber to the home (FTTH) service targeting five of the state's communities.

Among the first areas that will get the service are Habersham, White, Rabun and some rural parts of Stephens and Hall counties.

Taking a page from Google Fiber (Nasdaq: GOOG), the 1 Gbps service is priced at $99 a month. For customers that don't want that much speed, there's a 50 Mbps offering that starts at $49.95 a month.

All of its current 1,800 FTTH network customers have the option to upgrade to the 1 Gbps service by making a call to the service provider. It plans to extend the fiber-based service to all 25,000 homes in its territory based on what it says is "solely on customer demand."

"Outside of our current serviceable area, we will connect where there is the most demand," said Michael Foor, Trailwave Project Manager. "Anyone in an extended area can get service faster by encouraging their neighbors to pre-register as well."

For more:
- see the release

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