State · SEC Heartland — It Just Means More Data

East South Central

Footprint tier champions: National: AT&T · Mid-market: Cspire · Regional: BCI Mississippi Broadband LLC · State: CSpire Wireless · Local: Peoples Telecom

Divisions map

Nine U.S. divisions — click a state to open that division’s bracket for this tier (map scales with the page).

State playoff bracket

FIRST ROUNDCSpire Wireless#1 · east south centralDeKalb Telephone Cooperativ…#10 · east south centralWindstream Kentucky East, L…#2 · east south centralBrandenburg Telecom LLC#9 · east south centralNETSPEEDMS#3 · east south centralBen Lomand Rural Telephone …#8 · east south centralFirstLight Fiber LLC#4 · east south centralPine Belt Broadcasting LLC#7 · east south centralBen Lomand Connect#5 · east south centralWindstream Kentucky West, L…#6 · east south centralROUND 2CSpire Wireless#1 · east south centralBYE — advancesWindstream Kentucky East, L…#2 · east south centralBen Lomand Connect#5 · east south centralNETSPEEDMS#3 · east south centralFirstLight Fiber LLC#4 · east south centralROUND 3CSpire Wireless#1 · east south centralBYE — advancesWindstream Kentucky East, L…#2 · east south centralNETSPEEDMS#3 · east south centralCHAMPIONSHIPCSpire Wireless#1 · east south centralWindstream Kentucky East, L…#2 · east south centralCHAMPIONCSpire Wireless#1 · east south central

Qualifiers (State tier · 10)

#ProviderLocationsReviewsAvgFootprint+ / −Bracket
1CSpire Wireless516.8k4.09106.6106.6
2Windstream Kentucky East, LLC172.3k3.9989.889.8
3NETSPEEDMS85834.0978.278.2
4FirstLight Fiber LLC41.4k3.7971.471.4
5Ben Lomand Connect44954.0170.070.0
6Windstream Kentucky West, LLC31.0k4.0169.569.5
7Pine Belt Broadcasting LLC5814.1768.168.1
8Ben Lomand Rural Telephone Coop Inc34654.0067.067.0
9Brandenburg Telecom LLC43133.4664.264.2
10DeKalb Telephone Cooperative Inc31913.2458.358.3

Profile snapshot

CSpire Wireless is highlighted (State tier champion for this division). Footprint score comes from aggregated Google profile rows; bracket score adds Serper review sentiment (positive vs negative counts from the reviews API).

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Methodology

  • Aggregate Google profile rows by provider and census division (state → region mapping).
  • Top 26 per region by footprint composite; each provider is placed in a single global footprint tier (Local, State, Regional, Mid-market, or National) from US-wide listing, state, and division counts. Serper POST /reviews by place_id (cached) at build time.
  • Seeds and qualifiers are ordered by Supabase footprint (composite). Matchup winners compare a Serper-only duel score from positive vs negative review counts in the payload (≥4 vs ≤2); if Serper is off or missing, both sides fall back to footprint composite for that game. Ties break by footprint, then seed.

National pool seeding rules are summarized on the National assessments hub.

How footprint tiers are defined

  • National

    At least two census divisions and more than 30 distinct mappable US states.

    • Listings = distinct Google place_id across the country plus rows without a place_id (each row counts).
    • States and divisions are derived only from rows with a mappable US state → census division.
  • Mid-market

    At least two census divisions and not National, with either three or more states or exactly two states (multi-division gap rule).

    • Closes the gap where a provider spans multiple divisions with only two states—they still land here instead of being unclassified.
  • Regional

    All activity in a single census division and at least two mappable states.

  • State

    More than two listings and footprint in exactly one mappable state.

  • Local

    At most two listings (US-wide).

If there are no mappable states but more than two listings, we still assign a tier: Mid-market when there are multiple census divisions, Regional when there is exactly one division, otherwise State. Any remaining edge case is classified as Mid-market.