Southern Linc plots exit from Florida

Southern Linc said it plans to stop offering LTE services in Florida at the end of this month.

“Our Florida customers have been notified of this coverage change. When our customers with home service in Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia travel to the panhandle, they will roam on one of our roaming partners,” Southern Linc’s Lynda Swaney confirmed in an email to Light Reading. She said the company’s customers have been warned twice in writing about the situation, but that the company didn’t provide any recommendations on alternative service providers.

Swaney added that Southern Linc has no plans to liquidate its spectrum holdings in Florida. She said the company’s LTE equipment is being redeployed into other parts of its service territory. She declined to provide any financial details about the situation.

Swaney said the move has been in the planning stages since NextEra Energy completed its purchase of Florida’s Gulf Power Company from Southern Company in 2019. That’s because wireless network operator Southern Linc is a subsidiary of utility provider Southern Company, and Southern Linc serves the territories where Southern Company owns electric utilities. That territory now spans Georgia, Alabama and Southeast Mississippi – and not Florida.

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