CULLMAN, Ala. – Starting with the TNT Fireworks Bassmaster Elite tournament and festival that was held June 27-30, 2024, all guests, vendors and anglers visiting Smith Lake Park can connect to free Wi-Fi powered by Sprout Fiber Internet. Over the past several months, the Cullman County Tourism Board has worked with the park and the Sprout team at Cullman Electric Cooperative to create a custom fiber-to-the-premise (FTTX) solution with ample bandwidth to support Wi-Fi for large community events, such as the Bassmaster Elite series, which broadcasted live coverage of the event.
Jeff Tolbert, Cullman County Tourism Board chairman, said this about the partnership, “Our board focuses on providing our guests, both visitors and locals, with the best experiences possible. And offering quality Wi-Fi at events and festivals is a must to attract partners, like Bassmaster, to come to Cullman County. (Last) weekend’s event is the first time a Bassmaster Elite Series event has been held on Smith Lake. Sprout did an amazing job of preparing us to provide their high-quality internet for such an honorable event. We are excited to see what happens with the anglers and we know our guests will fall in love with the park, the lake and all Cullman County.”
Mark Freeman, Sprout’s VP of network operations, added this about providing parts of Smith Lake Park with fiber internet and a robust Wi-Fi solution, “Due to the large amount of area to cover with Wi-Fi, we utilized different types of technology to extend Wi-Fi from the main office to the boat ramp. We also were able to provide a multi-gig ethernet connection to the field for event vendors. We chose a powerful 60 GHz PtP radio to extend the Sprout service to multiple poles around the boat venue area and, from there, deliver Wi-Fi for the event with different Wi-Fi SSIDs and secured access for free public Wi-Fi, as well as separate staff and vendor networks. It’s a really unique configuration that meets their specific needs, and it was fun to build.”
