BROWNSVILLE, Texas – Brownsville Mayor Trey Mendez says his proudest achievement in office has been developing BTX Fiber, the high-speed internet project being installed throughout his city.
“For me, I really feel that BTX Fiber, our broadband project, is going to be huge,” Mendez said, in an interview with reporters following his final State of the City Address.
After serving one four-year term as mayor, Mendez announced he would not seek re-election. So, when BTX Fiber is fully rolled out, in about 24 months time, he will be a private citizen.
“We’re seeing the connectivity from Brownsville being one of the least connected to now one of the best connected in the U.S.,” Mendez said. “We get a lot of attention for that, because we’re doing it the right way. We’re doing a really innovative public private partnership.”
The private partner on the project is Lit Communities.
“Cities like ours don’t really get a whole lot of opportunity to bridge that digital divide. But we found a creative way to do it, and it’s going to really improve our city for decades.”
Mendez recently won a New Century Cities’ Change Maker award for his broadband initiative and this week will be speaking about the project at a Summit of America’s event.
The video below features parts of Mendez’s interview with reporters and his comments on BTX Fiber at the inaugural “Insights Unplugged” speaker series that was recently held at the eBridge Center for Business & Commercialization. The event, hosted by Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation and the UT-Rio Grande Valley’s Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Center, also featured tech entrepreneur Beto Altamirano.
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