[January 22, 2014]

C Spire Expands Availability of Homeowner Pre-Registration for Fiber to the Home Initiative Featuring 100 Times Faster Internet

C Spire is making it easier and more convenient for thousands of residents in nine Mississippi cities to sign up for the company's ultra-fast 1 Gbps fiber to the home Internet service by expanding pre-registration methods for the next generation technology.

The company, which launched customized, pre-registration web sites for residents in the cities of Batesville, Clinton, Corinth, Hattiesburg, Horn Lake, McComb, Quitman, Ridgeland and Starkville last month, introduced specialized kiosks in 13 retail stores Monday that allow consumers to easily and quickly sign up for the 1 Gbps ultra-fast Internet access as well as related digital television and home phone services.

"Online pre-registration has been going well, but we want to make it as convenient and easy as possible for residents to sign up for these services wherever they are and whenever they want to," said Gregg Logan, senior vice president C Spire Fiber. The 1 Gig service promises Internet access up to 100 times faster than national average broadband speeds.

As part of the registration process, residents in the nine cities are required to make a $10 refundable deposit and provide credit card information. The web site for each city features detailed, interactive maps of fiberhoods that show what percentage of residents need to sign up to turn their area "green" and qualify for construction.

There are also progress bars for each fiberhood that are updated daily to help residents get a "real time" snapshot of their success in getting neighbors, friends and others who live nearby to pre-register for the service. Registration percentage goals for each of the 80 fiberhoods in the nine cities vary between 35 and 45 percent.

"As soon as a critical number of neighborhoods have reached their percentage goals in a fiberhood, C Spire plans to begin construction - so there is a possibility that work could commence in more than one community at the sam time," Logan said.

The 1 Gbps Internet access will be available for $80 a month, $100 a month for combined Internet and home phone, $140 a month for Internet and digital TV and $160 a month for the entire package of all three services. C Spire customers will receive an additional $10 monthly discount on all packages.

The nine cities were among 33 municipalities that submitted formal applications last October to be the first to bring the technology of tomorrow to their communities today. All of the cities approved franchise agreements with C Spire to pave the way for the start of the pre-registration phase.

"There's a tremendous amount of excitement in each of these communities and a strong desire to be among the first to receive the 1 Gig Internet service to the home," Logan said. "We're looking forward to bringing tomorrow's technology to these Mississippi communities today because we know that this service has the power to transform communities into hubs for technology investment, economic growth and job creation."

Logan said C Spire hopes to start turning up 1 Gig service in the first C Spire Fiber neighborhoods by the middle of this year. The service is expected to pave the way for improvements in the areas of healthcare, education, civic life, municipal services and economic growth.

The finalist cities were selected last November by a C Spire review panel that considered factors like proximity to the company's fiber optic infrastructure, community mobilization capabilities and incentives to speed up the construction process and reduce overall costs. The application review process was monitored and the Individual and overall results tabulated by Ridgeland-based Horne LLP, one of the nation's top independent public accounting and business advisory firms.

To learn more about C Spire's Fiber to the Home initiative, visit www.cspire.com/fiberhome.

About C Spire

C Spire is a diversified telecommunications and technology services company that provides world-class service and a superior comprehensive suite of customer-inspired wireless communications, high-speed Internet access and a range of other telecommunications products and services to consumers and businesses. This news release and other announcements are available at www.cspire.com/news. For more information about C Spire, visit www.cspire.com or follow us on Facebook (News - Alert) at www.facebook.com/cspire or Twitter (News - Alert) at www.twitter.com/cspire.

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