The announcement that Parker Fibernet will unveil its new high-speed Internet service on Feb. 21-22 at the Rome Confluence 2013 innovation conference with the venue — the Historic DeSoto Theatre in downtown Rome just down Broad Street from Parker’s hub — the first to be so wired is a big, big deal. And not only for those already present wishing to avail themselves of communications access a zillion times faster than what now exists — well, a thousand times faster but it will feel like a zillion — via all those orange cables Parker has been burying everywhere.
As Mayor Evie McNiece summed it up: “Rome has long been a magnet for creative, high-tech entrepreneurs who want to start or expand new businesses ... Rome will now compete with only a handful of U.S. cities to offer the most advanced Internet services in the world.” In other words, this fiber-optic transmission cable is a “better mousetrap” likely to bring new business, new money, new jobs, new vitality to town ... or much of Northwest Georgia/Northeast Alabama to be more accurate.
Also, while all is hush-hush, the mysterious new Romecast Inc. corporation has purchased the massive former Florida Tile facility near Shannon, closed since 2006, for a sale price listed at $4,485,800. Nobody spends that sort of money in order to create the world’s largest paintball venue, which is actually what a lot of smaller empty, forgotten manufacturing spaces have become.







