January 2014
| Business World Magazine | 159
Montgomery and Dothan, Ala. The South-
east Alabama SmartBand initiative calls for
595 miles of fiber.
The company already belongs to a public/
private partnership with the South Alabama
Electrical Cooperative for an effort to en-
able smart-grid energy management services
for the co-ops’s 17,000 electric customers in
Pike, Coffee andCrenshaw counties – an ini-
tiative that will include two backhaul routes
to Atlanta, which could boost connectivity
and attract economic development to the
area.
NEW WAYS TO HELP
In addition to the economic development
angle, the enhanced grid simultaneously
augments advances in education and public
safety by providing enhanced network capa-
bility to schools and public service profes-
sionals – and bettering the quality of life for
all who are touched by those services.
“And tele-medicine, we’re enabling these
rural areas to get access to specialists via
video conferencing mechanisms,” Freeman
says. “The foundation we’re laying really al-
lows for this new augmented reality that
we’re going to see in the near future where a
doctor can operate on a patient and not only
see them through the camera, but actually
feel as if they’re in the same room. “I know
