The biggest kickoff in Orange Mound came several hours before Melrose High took the football field Friday, Oct. 2.
The music was already set up. Stan Bell, the longtime Memphis radio personality, was doing his legendary “roll call.” The Melrose band would soon add its own soundtrack, and with Senior Night still to come across the street, the Orange Mound Community Center had the feel of Friday night football.
But this kickoff was more about technology than touchdowns. City officials and community leaders gathered Friday to activate the first Connecting 901 site, switching on high-speed fiber and free public Wi-Fi in a corridor linking the Orange Mound Community Center, Orange Mound Library and Melrose Stadium.
For Orange Mound, it was the first visible piece of a much larger bet on connectivity — a public-private fiber network city leaders say will eventually reach about 85% of Memphis and give the city access at 116 public anchor sites.
City Council Chairwoman Jana Swearengen-Washington, who represents District 4, said the project also carried symbolic weight for a neighborhood that has long fought for investment.
“Today we are not just turning on the internet, but we are turning on opportunity,” she said. “This is what a smart city looks like. This is what equity looks like. This is what Memphis looks like — putting Orange Mound first.”
More than faster Wi-Fi
Throughout the afternoon speakers returned to a clear and present reality: Internet access now touches nearly everything from homework and job applications to health care, banking, government services and staying in touch with family.
Mayor Paul Young said the lesson became especially clear during the COVID-19 pandemic, when schools shifted online and some Memphis families found themselves without internet connections strong enough for students to reliably attend class.
“If you want to go and file your taxes, you’re doing it on the internet,” he said. “If you want to look up your bank statements, you’re doing it on the internet. If you want to connect with your loved ones, you’re looking at social media and uploading videos.”
Young said some families still rely primarily on cellphones to get online. Connecting901, he said, is intended to create places where residents can get high-speed access for free while the larger fiber build extends deeper into neighborhoods.
“We have to think about internet connectivity in the same way that we think about water and sewer,” Young said. “Because if you can’t get connected to the rest of the world, you can’t compete.”
An $800 million build
The infrastructure behind Friday’s celebration is being built by mStreet Fiber Memphis as part of the Smart Memphis Fiber project.
Adrian Kesler, the newly arrived president and general manager of mStreet Fiber Memphis, said the company has already invested approximately $237 million in the network and expects that figure to top $800 million by the time the project is complete. The City of Memphis is contributing $22 million, Young said, with those dollars coming from federal funding.
Kesler said the company expects to complete the first phase of construction next year, followed by a second phase that will continue extending the network across Memphis over the next several years.
Unlike a conventional internet provider, mStreet is building what Kesler described as an open-access network. Rather than residents buying internet service directly from mStreet, internet service providers will be able to use the underlying fiber network to sell service to homes and businesses.
“We have several that we’re signing up,” Kesler said. Once those agreements are ready, he said, mStreet plans to announce the providers and explain how residents can connect.
In the meantime, the public Wi-Fi activated Friday is available without a subscription at the Orange Mound sites.
Why Orange Mound?
Asked why the city chose Orange Mound for the first activation, Young pointed to the cluster of public and community assets within a few blocks.
The community center hosts youth programs and activities for older residents. The Orange Mound Library sits nearby in the historic Melrose High School building, while the Melrose High and its football stadium sit just across the way.
In fact, Connecting 901 later made its second debut of the day across the street, with free high-speed Wi-Fi activated at Melrose Stadium for Senior Night.
“You have all of these assets that are right here,” Young said. “So starting right here made a lot of sense.”
Memphis Parks and Recreation Director Justice Bolden pointed out what the new tech enables.
“For our kids, they’re going to have an opportunity to research and do their homework after school before they play,” Bolden said. “For our mature audience, they’ll have an opportunity to search and live. And also, you’re going to have an opportunity to continue to upload faster when you’re on Facebook.
“We finally got the juice!”
From connection to creation
Speaking of seniors: Friday’s launch also offered a glimpse at what city officials hope residents will do with that connectivity.
Inside one of two new technology labs at the community center — one designed for older residents and one for youth — Melrose High seniors sat alongside senior citizens for a “Senior 2 Senior” exercise built around artificial intelligence.
Carmen Collins, a technical coach, walked the groups through prompts they could use to create a mock magazine cover, asking participants to imagine positive stories, community events and images that represented Memphis to them.
Reggie Manning, CEO and co-founder of Vista Data, said the exercise was designed to make artificial intelligence less intimidating while giving two generations an opportunity to learn together.
“We want to be able to just give a hands-on demonstration of how we can use it as a community and create something together across the generations,” Manning said.
Making a personal connection
Memphis Public Libraries Director Eric Harrison made the case in more personal terms.
Harrison told the crowd about an aunt who lives only a few streets from the Orange Mound Library. She does not get out much, he said, and her cellphone effectively serves as the Wi-Fi connection for her home. Family members regularly send her videos, but weak connectivity can leave her frustrated when she cannot open them.
“She feels as though she’s missing out on something,” Harrison said.
Harrison said he has promised to bring his aunt to the Orange Mound Library. Now, with high-speed connectivity available there, he said she can experience the kind of access city officials hope to make available in neighborhoods across Memphis.
“She’ll get to see and feel the type of access that we want all the Memphians to have,” Harrison said. “She won’t miss anything. She will be connected to us.”
