Lewis County Herald - Serving Hohenwald, Lewis County Tennessee Since 1898

Main line fiber construction is currently underway in rural Hickman, Lewis and Perry counties for Meriwether Lewis Connect. The goal is to be doing in-home/business installations of fast, affordable, reliable broadband in all areas of Meriwether Lewis Electric Cooperative’s service area by the end of 2022.

“Weather, demand, covid’s impact on labor and equipment availability, as well as other uncontrollable factors may slow our progress,” says MLEC President and CEO Keith Carnahan, “but we’re committed to not stopping until every MLEC member has the option for service.”

An MLEC subsidiary, MLConnect is doing installs in all nine cities in the service territory and four of the five counties served by the cooperative. Rural Hickman County will be the last section prepared for installations, and MLConnect estimates those will begin in early-to-mid 2022.

An info map on both mlec.com and mlconnect.com can help residents see when MLConnect hopes to begin in-home/business installations in their area. After entering a service address, users can click outside the search results box to see their individual location’s status. When it reads, “in-service,” residents should reach out to MLEC, or email [email protected] for a Participation Agreement to process an order.

“We’re building almost 5000 miles of fiber, which is like driving to Yellowstone National Park and back, so some delays are bound to come,” said Carnahan. “We’re grateful for everyone’s support and the opportunity to invest in the future of our communities with fast, affordable, reliable broadband.”

MLEC is a member-owned, not-for-profit electric utility that serves more than 35,000 meters in Hickman, Houston, Humphreys, Lewis and Perry counties. Learn more about MLEC and MLConnect broadband internet at http://www.mlec.com.