With the news that Fidelity Communications was going to expand its efforts in Maumelle, Fidelity General Manager Sam McGill did a Q&A with ArkansasNewsroom.com that covers what the company has planned for the future.
The Q&A has been lightly edited and formatted for publication.
Q: About how many residential and business customers do you have in Maumelle/Pulaski County?
A: There are approximately 3,000 Fidelity customers in Maumelle.
Q: And how many of them are Gig Internet customers?
A: As of the third quarter 2022, our sell-in to Gig service is nearly 32% across our footprint (we don’t report market-specific numbers) however, we offer several speeds to meet the needs of all our customers.
Q: From a technical standpoint, converting them automatically, was that difficult. What’s a good way to describe that?
A: It was our goal to ensure our customers received the speed upgrade increase as soon as possible, so we worked to push this upgrade through in our overnight maintenance window. Our technical team notified Fidelity Gig and 100 Mbps customers that we would deploy this automatic upgrade reboot overnight to minimize disruption to their service. Customers who didn’t want to wait for the maintenance window were encouraged to reboot their modems manually to take advantage of the faster upload speeds sooner.
Q: Fidelity has made some significant upgrades in terms of fiber and such. So how much has Fidelity, a member of the Cable One family of brands, invested in those upgrades?
A: The company has invested $1.6 million in Maumelle and nearly $18 million in Arkansas over the last 3 years, building a network with the power and capacity to support the digital future of the customers we serve, as well as extend broadband service to areas previously unserved or underserved. Fidelity will continue to invest in a new era of innovation that will not only enrich the lives of our customers but contribute to the economic development of the cities and towns we serve.
Q: Are there plans for more in the future?
A: Fidelity will continue to invest in the communities we serve to offer a new era of innovation that will not only enrich the lives of its customers but contribute to the economic development of the hundreds of cities and towns we serve by laying the groundwork for 10 Gigabit (10G) speeds – internet connectivity that is more reliable, more secure and 10 times faster than today’s networks.
The recent increase in upload speeds for our Gig and 100 Mbps internet customers is part of that commitment. We continue to strive to bring faster speeds - both upload and download, network improvements for reliability and more speed options to Arkansas.
Q: The traditional cable model has shifted to becoming more of an internet provider. How has that changed your approach in a community like Maumelle?
A: We understand the importance of keeping communities and people connected. Broadband service is key to a community’s growth as families and businesses look to Fidelity to keep them connected through fast and reliable internet. This upgrade is part of our ongoing commitment to investing in the communities we serve and we will continue to stay ahead of customer demand by tapping into our fiber-powered network to provide our communities with the speeds they need to keep their multi-device homes connected to what matters most – whether that is family and friends, work, school or entertainment. People are working, learning, gaming, streaming and staying in touch through the internet and we want to be their trusted provider.
Q: Where else does Fidelity have operations in Arkansas? (As I recall, Maumelle was a bit of an outlier as Missouri was a big focus)
A: We serve several towns in Arkansas including Maumelle, Benton, Bryant (partially), Alexander, Hardee, Haskell, Saline County, Shannon Hills, Tull, Wrightsville as well as parts of North Little Rock, Beebe and Western Pulaski County.
Q: Anything else you'd like add?
A: Our Purpose is keeping our customers and communities connected to what matters most. This goes beyond providing fast and reliable internet. We are committed to developing and supporting programs and initiatives that have a meaningful impact in the cities and towns where we live and work. We have a personal stake in improving the communities we serve and believe it’s our responsibility to help ensure – through donations of time and resources – that our communities grow and thrive.
Cable One® annually awards nearly $250,000 in grants to nonprofit organizations served by the Cable One family of brands (Sparklight®, Fidelity Communications, Hargray, ValuNet Fiber and CableAmerica), acrossits 24-state footprint through the company’s Charitable Giving Fund. Several Arkansas-area organizations have received Charitable Giving Fund grants including Arkansas Diversity Summit in Maumelle, CASA of the Third Judicial District in Highland, Habitat for Humanity of Central Arkansas in Little Rock, Piggott Public Library in Piggott and 4 States Youth Flyers, Inc. in Texarkana, Ark.
We’ve also donated Chromebooks to schools in Beebe, Hardy and Benton (Saline County), through our Chromebooks for Kids initiative in which the company donates Chromebooks to Title I schools across its footprint. To date the company has donated more than 2,600 Chromebooks to help bridge the digital divide in schools that lack funding.
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Q&A with Fidelity Communications
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With the news that Fidelity Communications was going to expand its efforts in Maumelle, Fidelity General Manager Sam McGill did a Q&A with ArkansasNewsroom.com that covers what the company has planned for the future.
The Q&A has been lightly edited and formatted for publication.
Q: About how many residential and business customers do you have in Maumelle/Pulaski County?
A: There are approximately 3,000 Fidelity customers in Maumelle.
Q: And how many of them are Gig Internet customers?
A: As of the third quarter 2022, our sell-in to Gig service is nearly 32% across our footprint (we don’t report market-specific numbers) however, we offer several speeds to meet the needs of all our customers.
Q: From a technical standpoint, converting them automatically, was that difficult. What’s a good way to describe that?
A: It was our goal to ensure our customers received the speed upgrade increase as soon as possible, so we worked to push this upgrade through in our overnight maintenance window. Our technical team notified Fidelity Gig and 100 Mbps customers that we would deploy this automatic upgrade reboot overnight to minimize disruption to their service. Customers who didn’t want to wait for the maintenance window were encouraged to reboot their modems manually to take advantage of the faster upload speeds sooner.
Q: Fidelity has made some significant upgrades in terms of fiber and such. So how much has Fidelity, a member of the Cable One family of brands, invested in those upgrades?
A: The company has invested $1.6 million in Maumelle and nearly $18 million in Arkansas over the last 3 years, building a network with the power and capacity to support the digital future of the customers we serve, as well as extend broadband service to areas previously unserved or underserved. Fidelity will continue to invest in a new era of innovation that will not only enrich the lives of our customers but contribute to the economic development of the cities and towns we serve.
Q: Are there plans for more in the future?
A: Fidelity will continue to invest in the communities we serve to offer a new era of innovation that will not only enrich the lives of its customers but contribute to the economic development of the hundreds of cities and towns we serve by laying the groundwork for 10 Gigabit (10G) speeds – internet connectivity that is more reliable, more secure and 10 times faster than today’s networks.
The recent increase in upload speeds for our Gig and 100 Mbps internet customers is part of that commitment. We continue to strive to bring faster speeds - both upload and download, network improvements for reliability and more speed options to Arkansas.
Q: The traditional cable model has shifted to becoming more of an internet provider. How has that changed your approach in a community like Maumelle?
A: We understand the importance of keeping communities and people connected. Broadband service is key to a community’s growth as families and businesses look to Fidelity to keep them connected through fast and reliable internet. This upgrade is part of our ongoing commitment to investing in the communities we serve and we will continue to stay ahead of customer demand by tapping into our fiber-powered network to provide our communities with the speeds they need to keep their multi-device homes connected to what matters most – whether that is family and friends, work, school or entertainment. People are working, learning, gaming, streaming and staying in touch through the internet and we want to be their trusted provider.
Q: Where else does Fidelity have operations in Arkansas? (As I recall, Maumelle was a bit of an outlier as Missouri was a big focus)
A: We serve several towns in Arkansas including Maumelle, Benton, Bryant (partially), Alexander, Hardee, Haskell, Saline County, Shannon Hills, Tull, Wrightsville as well as parts of North Little Rock, Beebe and Western Pulaski County.
Q: Anything else you'd like add?
A: Our Purpose is keeping our customers and communities connected to what matters most. This goes beyond providing fast and reliable internet. We are committed to developing and supporting programs and initiatives that have a meaningful impact in the cities and towns where we live and work. We have a personal stake in improving the communities we serve and believe it’s our responsibility to help ensure – through donations of time and resources – that our communities grow and thrive.
Cable One® annually awards nearly $250,000 in grants to nonprofit organizations served by the Cable One family of brands (Sparklight®, Fidelity Communications, Hargray, ValuNet Fiber and CableAmerica), across its 24-state footprint through the company’s Charitable Giving Fund. Several Arkansas-area organizations have received Charitable Giving Fund grants including Arkansas Diversity Summit in Maumelle, CASA of the Third Judicial District in Highland, Habitat for Humanity of Central Arkansas in Little Rock, Piggott Public Library in Piggott and 4 States Youth Flyers, Inc. in Texarkana, Ark.
We’ve also donated Chromebooks to schools in Beebe, Hardy and Benton (Saline County), through our Chromebooks for Kids initiative in which the company donates Chromebooks to Title I schools across its footprint. To date the company has donated more than 2,600 Chromebooks to help bridge the digital divide in schools that lack funding.
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