RIDGELAND — Consumers and businesses are experiencing a 15-to-20 percent improvement in mobile broadband speeds throughout much of C Spire’s wireless network thanks to installation of new base stations and software that will serve as the foundation for the company’s transition to the next generation of cellular technology.

C Spire, a Mississippi-based telecommunications and technology services company, operates the nation’s largest privately-owned mobile services firm and is in the final stages of work on the multi-million-dollar project with completion expected by the end of September.

The firm has spent much of 2019 upgrading the 1,200-plus cell sites in its wireless network and laying the groundwork for the next phase of mobile communications.

“We are uniquely positioned with low, mid and high-band spectrum to ensure that we design and engineer a network that is truly customer-inspired and fully meets customer needs for speed, latency and coverage,” Alan Jones, senior vice president of Access and Deployment for C Spire, said.

Before the company starts rolling out next-generation cellular technology, though, it must have the new, updated base stations and software that will enable a smooth transition from current 4G LTE technology.

“We’re using carrier aggregation technology, which brings together spectrum from multiple frequency bands for improved speed and spectral efficiency, and other software and hardware improvements to achieve better speeds and pave the way for Voice over LTE or high-definition mobile voice service,” Jones said.

The new base stations are adaptable, powerful and able to meet C Spire’s future needs for a next-generation cellular network, software-defined services and the Internet of Things.

“Not only does this new technology deliver high-quality connectivity and coverage, but it helps us quickly evolve our network to meet changing requirements,” Jones said.