Paula Merritt / The Meridian Star Joe Norwood, president of the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors and Mayo Flynt, president of AT&T Mississippi, sign documents certifying the Kewanee Mega Site, G.V. "Sonny" Montgomery Industrial Park and the I-20/59 Industrial Park are all fiber ready and prepared to meet the needs of investors.

With an eye toward future global investments in Lauderdale County, representatives of AT&T, East Mississippi Business Development Corp. and Lauderdale County announced three county sites Tuesday certified as AT&T Fiber Ready.

During a news conference at the East Mississippi Business Development Corporation office on Front Street, AT&T Mississippi President Mayo Flynt said Kewanee Mega Site, G.V. “Sonny” Montgomery Industrial Park and the I-20/59 Industrial Park are all fiber ready and prepared to meet the needs of investors.

“We have a great working relationship with the EMBDC,” Flynt said. “We have a great partnership with and support from our elected officials. It is so important we’ve gotten support for our policies so we can invest and create jobs. We’ve been investing in fiber in Mississippi since 1980 and we’ve invested $875 million in the state from 2013 to 2015.”

Flynt said the designation should give local economic development officials more tools to woo investors to the area.

“This is designed to help our partners with economic development confidently and authoritatively communicate to prospective customers looking to locate here in this area that we have the latest communications capabilities if they come here,” Smith said. “This is a chance to announce to the world these parks have fiber optic capability. We believe having these designations will be something investors can check off the list.”

After Smith’s announcement, he and Board of Supervisors President Joe Norwood signed the documents that indicated the parks are fiber ready.

“This is a great day for Meridian and the Lauderdale County region,” Norwood said. “This means a great deal for us as we recruit business and investors to our community.”

EMBDC Board Member Bob Luke said the ability to communicate is imperative.

“Everything we do in terms of economic development deals with communication. We could not even begin to compete without this,” Luke said. “These fiber ready sites will allow us to compete and win in our economic development efforts.”

Mississippi House of Rep. Speaker Pro Tem Greg Snowden, District 84 Rep. William Shirley, Meridian Mayor Percy Bland and City Council President Kim Houston were elected officials also present for the announcement.

“We’re just happy these three sites are fiber ready and gives us another advantage and opportunity to recruit businesses to the individual sites,” Bland said.