C Spire Launches New Podcast to Help Consumers Learn More About Emerging Technologies

Monthly Let’s Talk Tech program delivers curated, on-demand digital content on topics ranging from the wireless revolution and Fiber to the Home to the Internet of Everything

Ridgeland, Miss. - (December 10, 2015) – C Spire today launched a new podcast show designed to help consumers and businesses navigate the ever-changing and complex world of technology with topics and guests that explore the latest trends and how they affect our lives. The monthly Let’s Talk Tech podcast debuted with six episodes covering topics such as the wireless revolution, Fiber to the Home and the Internet of Everything. The program highlights what’s hot and happening in technology with show host Dave Miller, a veteran journalist and communications professional. “We’re excited about using a new generation of on-demand digital channels to provide consumers and businesses with premium, curated content on cutting-edge technology topics,” said Jim Richmond, vice president of Corporate Communications for C Spire, a Mississippi-based diversified telecommunications and technology services provider. Richmond said podcasting is a free-form radio show delivered on-demand over the Internet rather than the airwaves. The technology has been around since 2005, but has experienced a 30 percent growth rate in recent years as measured by Google searches and episode downloads. A new audience study by radio network Westwood One found that the average podcast listener is 30 years old with a college education and uses mobile phones and tablets to consume most of their content. “We want to offer new ways for younger generations to engage and consume content on topics that are relevant to their lives,” Richmond said. Here are topic summaries for the first episodes:

• The Next Gig Thing is Here: C Spire Fiber to the Home – learn how a tech company in the Deep South became one of the nation’s leading ultra-fast Gigabit speed Internet service providers. Hear the amazing story of how C Spire used fiber optics to quickly launch a new line of business and put Mississippi on the U.S. technology map.
• Making sense of the Video Revolution - Vū Digital – a Mississippi tech startup may have cracked the code on one of the most vexing problems facing content providers and big media companies worldwide – how to glean searchable, indexable data from images, text and audio in videos. With video soon to comprise 90 percent of the world’s data, learn how C Spire subsidiary Vū Digital developed revolutionary new computer vision science technology as the result of a pivot.
• Into the Storm: Life Lessons from Hurricane Katrina - take a retrospective look at technology changes in the decade since Hurricane Katrina. Relive first-hand accounts of destruction and the resiliency of the human spirit in the aftermath of the worst natural disaster in U.S. history. Learn how C Spire helped storm victims, about the heroic efforts of technicians to maintain and restore critical communications and how the company is better prepared today for the next story of the century.
• Gettin’ Giggy Wit It on the 21st Century Campus – learn how a small, private Christian liberal arts university in the Deep South is giving new meaning to the definition of on-campus housing perks by offering students super HD TV services and ultra-fast Gigabit Internet access that’s 100 times faster than national average broadband speeds.
• Inseparable: Home values and ultra-fast Internet - one of the leading Fiber to the Home research firms in North America discusses the latest broadband Internet trends and developments and how changing consumer behavior and technology use is driving the growing demand for ultra-fast Gigabit speeds in homes and neighborhoods across the country. Learn why fiber-based services, which provide more reliability and faster speeds, have rapidly become the most important considerations for consumers shopping for new homes.
• Connecting the Dots: The Internet of Everything – learn more about the growing worldwide trend of connecting devices and services in homes and business to the Internet and consumers from one of the world’s foremost experts on the growing worldwide trend. Gain insights on why this trendy tech topic goes beyond the gaudy growth and investment numbers and really is about the next wave of hyper-connectivity – all designed to improve business profitability, innovation and consumer quality of life.