Pineland Communications donates to SGTC Foundation

February 20, 2019
Sidney Rhoney, Lead Broadband Deployment Technician, and Matt Massey, Sales Representative, from Pineland Communications are shown above with South Georgia Technical President Dr. John Watford and Steven Snell, Pineland Business Development Representative.
Sidney Rhoney, Lead Broadband Deployment Technician, and Matt Massey, Sales Representative, from Pineland Communications are shown above with South Georgia Technical President Dr. John Watford and Steven Snell, Pineland Business Development Representative.

Pineland Communications, a subsidiary of Pineland Telephone Cooperative from Metter, GA, made a donation to the South Georgia Technical College Foundation recently, announced South Georgia Technical College President Dr. John Watford.

   Pineland is providing approximately $2 million in capital investment in infrastructure to bring gigabit-enabled broadband service to the business community of Americus in an effort to support economic development and business growth. Pineland currently serves over 1,300 square miles with its traditional phone and internet services in all or parts of nine-counties in Southeast Georgia. The cooperative is currently in its 67th year and 100 percent of Pineland’s phone and Internet customers receive their services via a dedicated Fiber-to-the Home network offering Gigabit enabled Broadband connections.

   “On behalf of South Georgia Technical College and the South Georgia Technical College Foundation, I would like to thank Pineland Communications for their donation. We appreciate the partnership and their acknowledgement of the contribution that South Georgia Tech makes to workforce education in this region,” said South Georgia Technical College President Dr. John Watford.

   Pineland General Manager and Executive Vice President Dustin Durden explained that “here in Americus, we have partnered with our electric cooperative brethren to help bring broadband networks to the areas of Georgia that lack service. Pineland Telephone was formed in 1951 to provide basic telephone service to underserved areas of Georgia and today we see a similar opportunity with broadband. We are continuing our mission today by providing advanced technology and services as good or better, than in many urban areas. As we move into a new era of connectivity, we stand to deliver a pipe of data to businesses where it will be consumed by an infinite amount of devices that we haven’t even dreamed up yet.”

   With the new service, the majority of the businesses in the Americus area will have access to gigabit capacity. Service to customers is anticipated to go live in 2019.

   Dr. Watford met with Matt Massey, Steven Snell, and Sidney Rhoney from Pineland to thank them for the donation and express his appreciation for offering this service to the Americus business community and surrounding areas.

   For more information about making a donation to the South Georgia Technical College Foundation, contact SGTC Vice President of Institutional Advancement and Executive Director of the SGTC Foundation Su Ann Bird at 229-931-2110 or sbird@southgatech.edu. Donations may also be mailed to the SGTC Foundation, P.O. Box 6102, Americus, GA 31709.