Dignitaries celebrate fiber internet program in Selma to close digital gap in the Black Belt

Dignitaries Saturday celebrated a $45 million plan to bring fiber broadband infrastructure to 53,000 homes and businesses in Selma, Demopolis and 15 other towns in the Black Belt by mid-2027.

Local government officials and representatives of technology companies said at a press conference Saturday that the broadband network, which will be paid for by Yellowhammer Networks, will pass at least 85% of homes and businesses in Selma, regardless of residents’ income levels.

Construction began this month with network connection estimated to be available to the first Selma residents by the end of June.

Selma Mayor James Perkins Jr. called the project a “transformative step.”

“High-speed reliable broadband is no longer nice to have. Today, it’s as important as gas, water and electricity,” Perkins said at the press conference. “This is a leap to help close the digital divide that has long shadowed this city and cities like it.”

Perkins said, “In our increasingly digital society, cities without access to fiber broadband risk falling behind. It’s critical that the city make fiber broadband accessible citywide by building utility-like infrastructure that serves our residents’ needs today and for generations to come.”

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Bringing high-speed internet to Selma is “an execution of equity, an execution of opportunity and an execution of unity,” Perkins said.

Jane F. Garvey, global chairman of Meridiam Infrastructure, which owns and finances Yellowhammer Networks, said that fewer than 25% of Alabama’s homes are connected to fiber internet. Not investing in bringing high-speed internet to every community “creates a digital divide and limits opportunity,” Garvey said.

Bishop Timothy Paul, president of internet provider Omnipoint Technology, Inc., said Omnipoint, Meridiam, local officials and nonprofits are working together to develop “digital equity programs” that will make connecting to the fiber network affordable for low-income residents.

Seth Hoedl, president of Post Road Foundation, said his nonprofit is partnering with Yellowhammer Networks and Meridiam to increase affordability and access for low-income households in Selma and rural Alabama.

“Ubiquitous fiber in combination with comprehensive digital equity programs enable communities to thrive and flourish,” Hoedl said. “Cutting-edge jobs and job training, educational opportunities, high quality healthcare, a smarter, more reliable, cleaner and lower cost electric grid, and other applications that we cannot even dream of are just some of the expected, long-term benefits.”