BROWNSVILLE, Texas — The first customer of a new fiber optic company now serving Brownsville is now online, and city and company officials want everyone to know about it.

The East Los Ebanos Street resident is now connected as a Lit Fiber customer and now has a fast and reliable system that will soon serve the entire city.

“As a semi-professional streamer, you need this type of internet service to be successful in this space,” said Jay Hicks after being introduced as a customer of the new company on Wednesday, August 7. “Since I was the first customer, the day of installation went completely smoothly.”

He said he joined a few weeks ago and added that he has not had any problems.

“It’s incredible,” he said. “I’m very impressed with Lit Fiber.”

Ron Frie, vice president of operations at Lit Fiber, said the company’s goal is to lay up to 100 miles of fiber optic cable in Brownsville and, once that goal is reached, expand to other areas.

Richard Hogue, another company representative, said they are happy to be here and are in tune with the progress the city is experiencing today and in the near future.

The event was attended by numerous city officials and company employees who could not hide their enthusiasm to learn more about the project’s progress and to spread the word.

It was in March of this year that Alabama-based Lit Fiber announced the opening of a demo center on East Levee Street, creating about a dozen jobs and making the company the second-largest internet provider in the city.

“We are excited to be working in Brownsville,” AJ Whitehurst, the company’s vice president of strategic initiatives, said at the time. “A lot of work has been going on behind the scenes and we are now ready to make this city one of the fastest connected cities in the country.”

LIT Fiber has one center in Ohio and its second now in Brownsville.

Brownsville Deputy Mayor Rose Gowen said they worked hard to make the Lit Fiber project a reality.

“It’s so exciting to see this day,” she said. “As a physician, I can imagine this will play a big role in telemedicine.”

Gowen said the people of Brownsville need all the options available when it comes to today’s technological advances, and she expressed confidence that Lit Fiber will provide some of those much-needed services.

According to Helen Ramirez, the city’s manager, Brownsville is a national model for public-private sector collaboration for the benefit of all.

“This is the result of many, many years of hard work,” she said. “History is being made here.”

According to a fact sheet available at Wednesday’s event, Lit Fiber Internet prices range from $14.99 a month for some eligible customers who require support to $69.99 a month for others.