United Communications, Middle Tennessee's leading provider of fiber and fixed wireless internet services, and Middle Tennessee Electric, the state's largest electric cooperative, announced Monday, April 27 they will earmark $25,000 to a Community Relief fund specifically targeting families and businesses in their serviceable area of Middle Tennessee that have been negatively impacted by COVID-19.

The announcement was made by William Bradford, president and CEO of United Communications and Chris Jones, President and CEO of Middle Tennessee Electric. United is launching a Community Relief Program to offer assistance to local small businesses to support their employees working remotely and to families who have students learning from home and teachers instructing online. Depending upon the need, there are several Relief offerings that will be available until June 30, 2020. For local, small businesses (25 employees or less), United will provide Hosted PBX Phone Service at no cost to new business customers or customers not currently using the product. Hosted PBX is a service that improves communication capabilities for employees whether working from home or in the office. And as an add-on to Hosted PBX, businesses can choose to include the SNAPmobile feature. SNAPMobile allows mobile devices to use the same communication and collaboration tools as being in the office. This offer is also available to nonprofit organizations within the United service area.

For residential consumers, United's Relief Program will provide free internet service to new residential customers who are teachers or have students with online-learning needs, or Free bandwidth upgrade for current customers who are teachers or have students with online-learning needs. In addition, United is currently exploring viable locations for a number of Free public hotspots.

“We want to support the efforts to re-open our economy and keep our community safe,” said William Bradford. “In addition to expanding broadband access to underserved areas of Middle Tennessee, we believe working with our small businesses to enable mobile workforces and supporting our teachers and students to teach and learn online is critically important to ensure the residents of Middle Tennessee can adapt and thrive in this current environment.”

“As with our Middle Tennessee Electric members, we are committed to not only making sure our services are running at top performance during this time, but reaching out and supporting our community in ways beyond normal business operations,” added Chris Jones, “Uncommon times call for uncommon measures.”
 

United had previously established CDC safeguards for their employees in the field and the customers they interact with, using the proper personal protective equipment, daily monitoring of temperature and free of symptoms, as well as limiting the amount of time in a customer's home. In addition, United committed to the “Keep Americans Connected Pledge” which serves to not terminate service for 60 days due to circumstances caused by the COVID-19 crisis. 

While United continues to maintain current internet infrastructure and network as well as ongoing construction and build-out, the Internet Service Provider will integrate their community relief efforts with current operations. 

For more information regarding United's Community Relief Program and application, go to www.united.net/communityrelief/. 

About United Communications 

United Communications is a leading provider of Internet, digital TV, and phone services to enterprise-class businesses and residential customers in Middle Tennessee. United Communications network includes close to 1,000 route miles of fiber connecting in Nashville, Murfreesboro, and Smyrna and covering portions of Williamson, Davidson, Marshall, Bedford, Franklin and Rutherford counties. United Communications is a subsidiary of Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation. To learn more, please visit www.united.net. 

About Middle Tennessee Electric 

Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation is a member-owned, not-for-profit electric cooperative providing electricity to more than 235,000 residential and business members in Williamson, Wilson, Rutherford and Cannon counties. For more information, please visit www.mtemc.com.