North Georgia Network to Be Known as “NGN” as Interest Grows to “Live Rural” and “Work Global”

Clarkesville, GA – January 9, 2017 – North Georgia Network, a member-owned cooperative operating over 1,600 miles of fiber optic infrastructure in Georgia, announces it will simply be known as “NGN” moving forward, to align with the growing level of interest in expanding the network’s services beyond the North Georgia region. Since its establishment in 2009, the North Georgia Network has empowered the region to “live rural” and “work global” with high speed connectivity that rivals that found in large metropolitan areas. As the network evolves to include new communities in other portions of the state as well as bordering states in the Southeast, the name is evolving too.

“Although we’ll be using a new name, we’ll continue to offer the same exceptional services to our existing members that we always have, while connecting new regions through NGN’s model of partnering with member-owned utility cooperatives and other public entities. This unique model is a proven ‘best-fit’ for rural communities looking to close the digital divide,” says Paul Belk, President and CEO of NGN.

Approximately 34 million Americans still lack access to adequate fixed broadband at the FCC’s benchmark speed of 25/3 Mbps. Additionally, 39% of rural Americans are without access to fixed broadband versus only 4% of urban-based Americans. Maybe the most concerning statistic of all is that 41% of schools still haven’t met the FCC’s short-term goal of 100 Mbps per 1,000 students and only 9% have the fiber connectivity to meet the FCC’s long-term goal of 1 Gbps per 1,000 students.

The NGN team’s core goal is to make these surprising statistics a thing of the distant past. NGN improved the communications infrastructure in North Georgia with a high-speed fiber optic network that empowers local residents and businesses to compete on a global scale. Since the network’s launch, nearly 8,500 of Blue Ridge Mountain EMC and Habersham EMC’s electric customers have received high-speed internet service over the NGN network and that number continues to grow each week. NGN looks to pioneer growth in the rural broadband industry as it expands this same level of success into new rural communities.

Bringing broadband to rural America is truly a community effort. To date, NGN has received buy-in from electric co-ops, multiple counties, development authorities, school districts and universities, as well as the state and federal government. NGN delivered state-of-the-art broadband infrastructure to communities throughout North Georgia based on the stakeholders’ unified mission to provide their citizens the same advantages afforded to urban communities. It will require a continued group effort to reach all of rural America with the broadband it needs for the future.

Are you an EMC, utility, or municipality interested in learning more about the NGN model? Please contact info@ngn.coop or call 706-754-5323.