How Capcon replaced 4–5 separate vendors, then cut outage restoration time by more than half.

Sprout Meets Capcon

Cullman Electric Cooperative in Alabama launched Sprout Fiber in June 2020. By January 2021, they connected their first customer and have grown to serve over 12,000 subscribers. The cooperative model meant prioritizing community service over profit — but it also meant limited tolerance for vendor underperformance.

Mark Freeman, VP of Network Operations, had multiple 10Gb backhaul connections from another provider but was dissatisfied with their support. A colleague at Cumberland Connect recommended Capcon Networks.

Knowledge is Power

When upgrading from 10Gb to 100Gb backhaul, Capcon helped Sprout scale with carrier diversity, geographic diversity, and headroom for continued growth. Capcon also introduced two solutions no previous vendor had been able to deliver: Connect-IX peering to lower latency and shorten the distance between Sprout users and content providers, and proactive DDoS mitigation to protect the network from outages.

Where Sprout would previously have needed four or five separate vendors to cover the same ground, Capcon consolidated everything into a single relationship.

Support That Shows Up

In April 2023, both a 10Gb and 100Gb circuit went down simultaneously. Capcon's NOC team made contact at 4:20 AM and worked relentlessly with the underlying carrier, restoring the circuit by 2:37 PM with regular updates throughout. Sprout's previous vendor took nearly 24 hours to restore a comparable outage and provided only two email updates during the entire incident.

Looking Ahead

Sprout Fiber plans to expand to 20,000 subscribers. With Capcon consolidating carrier management, support, and advanced network services into a single point of contact, Sprout's team stays focused on what they do best: serving their community.