The Andalusia City Council this week approved a franchise agreement that will give local residents another option for telecommunications services in the future.

Jake Cowen, senior vice president of Telepak Networks, Inc., doing business as C-Spire, said his company received a federal grant to build a 677-mile, high-capacity fiber optic network, which will travel through 27 counties in Alabama, including Andalusia and Covington County. The local agreement gives C Spire a non-exclusive right to construct and operate a telecommunications system in the rights-of-way and a non-exclusive franchise to provide services to subscribers in the city.

In Andalusia, he said, the company will deploy a high-capacity cabinet of electronics which will enable them to serve fiber to residential areas.

“In Andalusia, we will have three routes out, so subscribers will benefit from multiple redundancies. In other words, you could have up to two fiber paths cut, and we could still maintain network service,” Cowen said.

Cowen said the federal grant requires the company to complete the fiber optic network by July of 2027, and the company will move into market expansion in Phase 2. However, businesses located where the company has run fiber on state rights-of-ways should have access to service by the end of 2026.

The grant also requires the company to allow competitors access to the network.

Mayor Pro-tem Terry Powell, who chaired Tuesday’s meeting, said, “The city is hoping by having an additional internet provider, it will make other providers make their service more dependable, which is a complaint we hear. This will make it even better for businesses and individuals, who will have more choices.”

“This is good news for Andalusia residents,” Mayor Earl Johnson said. “For a number of years, local residents have reached out to us expressing a desire for additional internet and cable options in our community. If the council approves this agreement, another option will soon exist.”

If approved, the agreement is good for 25 years, and requires C Spire to pay the City a franchise fee of 3 percent of the monthly service charge revenue from telecommunications services to subscribers in the city. If C Spire provides video services to subscribers in the city, the company also will be required to pay a percentage of gross sales to the city. The fees are due quarterly. The agreement also includes language that addresses fees for bundled services.