Calls to improve Mississippi's access to the Internet are growing louder. Mississippi has the sixth slowest average Internet speed in the country.
Mississippi based Internet company C-spire is adding Jackson to its list of cities where it will install new faster broadband Internet services, bringing the total to ten.
Company CEO Hu Meena says access to the Internet is a modern essential.
"We don't consider internet a luxury. It is an absolute necessity. And the fast you can make it, the more power it has," Meena said.
Meena compared access to the Internet with access to electricity which also started as luxury before becoming a modern staple.
Northern district public service commissioner Brandon Presley has been a strong advocate for improving Internet access and speed state wide and agrees with the analogy.
"If you are an entrapenure to be able to sell your products world wide. It is going to be an absolute fault line between states that are successful and states that are not successful," Presley said.
Presley says the commission is working with the federal government to fund improved access and speeds statewide.
The Mississippi Library Commission also intends to ask for funding from the state legislature to install high-speed, wireless Internet in every library in the state.
Executive director Susan Cassagne says money should not be a barrier for residents to get online.
"We have children getting wireless devices assigned by their schools but at 3:30 where do they go? In the rural areas of the state where they do not have internet they are going to go to their local library," Cassagne said.
Only West Virginia, Montana, Kentucky, Arkansas and Alaska have slower average speeds than Mississippi.
