RIDGELAND, Miss.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 28, 2026--
C Spire, an advanced technology provider that delivers customer-inspired solutions to transform how people and businesses connect, live and work, today announced TekLinks, Inc. dba C Spire Business has achieved three International Organization for Standardization (ISO) certifications simultaneously. Schellman Compliance, LLC certified C Spire* to ISO 9001, ISO/IEC 20000-1 and ISO/IEC 27001 with zero nonconformities on its first attempt. These certifications confirm C Spire’s* management system meets rigorous, internationally recognized standards for quality, security and reliability, giving customers confidence in the consistency of its delivery of critical business technology services.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260728615627/en/
ISO certifications are part of an integrated management system, meaning the same disciplined operating model that ensures quality, also manages the service against its commitments and protects the information inside it. In particular, few providers earn ISO/IEC 20000-1 as this certification ensures IT services are delivered effectively, aligned with business needs, and continually improved. This certification sets C Spire apart from regional and national competitors.
“Achieving all three ISO certifications concurrently reflects the deep expertise and disciplined operating model our team brings to every customer engagement,” said Brad Carpenter, Chief Operating Officer and EVP of Business Technology, C Spire. “Our customers deserve transparency, ownership and accountability, which by upholding these standards validates to them that quality, service excellence and information security are built into the way we operate.”
Details of the three certifications include:
ISO certifications are formal, independently audited validations that an organization operates a management system meeting internationally recognized standards for quality, service management and information security.
*C Spire is the brand name of TekLinks, Inc. dba C Spire Business, the entity certified by Schellman Compliance, LLC. Certificate numbers: ISO 9001 - 1393139-1; ISO/IEC 20000-1 - 1060244-1; ISO/IEC 27001 - 1830961-1.
About C Spire
C Spire is a privately held advanced technology company that delivers customer-inspired solutions, transforming how people and businesses connect, live, and work. With a proven legacy of innovation, C Spire is elevating connected living by providing customers with fiber-powered smart homes, AI-enhanced experiences and 5G connectivity. C Spire is accelerating tomorrow's business growth with secure fiber networks, AI-driven cloud solutions and intelligent collaboration tools. The company, based in Ridgeland, Miss., is the largest, privately held U.S. wireless carrier, a leading fiber internet provider in Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee, and an award-winning tech solutions partner for businesses across 49 states. ISO certifications exclusively cover managed services and business internet operations offered from locations across Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee. This news release and other announcements are available at www.cspire.com/news. For more information about C Spire, visit www.cspire.com or follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/cspire or X at www.x.com/cspire.
C Spire Achieves Triple ISO Certification, Strengthening Managed Services Capabilities
A prosecutor said that a teenager who killed two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Georgia carefully plotted the killing specifically to become famous, while a defense attorney argued that the terrible actions were those of a vulnerable and neglected child.
Colt Gray, 16, pleaded guilty last week to 55 counts, including murder, in the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting that also left several others wounded at the school about 45 miles (73 kilometers) northeast of Atlanta.
The minimum penalty for murder in Georgia is life with the possibility of parole. That leaves Barrow County Superior Court Judge Nicholas Primm trying to decide whether Gray should ever be eligible for parole.
District Attorney Brad Smith told the judge that Gray “cannot be in society.”
“We’ve seen no evidence he has any ability to develop a conscience or any ability ever to fully value human life,” Smith said.
Defense attorney W. Charlton Allen told the judge his client is “not irretrievably broken.” Giving him the possibility of parole would give him “an opportunity of hope," Allen said, adding that without hope, “that takes away the ability for him to change.”
Teachers Richard “Ricky” Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, and students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, died in the shooting. Another teacher and eight more students were wounded, seven of them hit by gunfire.
Victims of the shooting and family members of those killed conveyed their anger and grief to Primm on Friday, almost all of them asking him to impose a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.
Shayna Aspinwall, the wife of math teacher and football coach Richard Aspinwall, described “a life sentence of grief and trauma for those left behind.”
Investigators testified during the sentencing hearing that Gray idolized other mass shooters, talking about them online with other members of the “true crime community,” a group of young people online who are fascinated with such attacks.
Gray had chatted online about gaining notoriety through a school shooting and his admiration for previous mass shooters. There were aspects of his preparation and behavior before and after the Apalachee High School shooting that mimicked other mass shooters, an investigator testified.
Prosecutors played recordings of phone conversations Gray had with his mother, Marcee Gray, from a youth detention center in the months after the shooting. During those calls, he directed his mother to look up what people were saying about him online. When she described “fan art” drawings depicting him or comments people made about him, he asked her how much engagement those posts were getting and seemed excited when they were getting a lot.
“The shooting was not the culmination of the plan. The shooting was just one of the steps of the plan. The plan was ultimate and lifelong fame inside of the TCC,” Smith said, referencing the “true crime community.”
Gray’s maternal grandmother, Debbie Polhamus, testified that the teen had a troubled childhood and that his parents failed him. Her grandson had grown “highly agitated and aggressive” in the weeks before the shooting, she said, adding that she had urged his parents to get him some help but they didn’t follow through.
“I tried to help Colt because nobody else was helping him,” she said.
Polhamus said she visits her grandson once a week at a youth detention center and that he has improved enormously with treatment and medication.
“He’s so much better. Colt was in desperate need of a routine,” she said.
She said her grandson has been doing a lot of reading and wants to go to school and study to get his GED. She urged the judge to allow him a chance at parole.
“I’d like to see him have a chance at some point to prove himself,” Polhamus said.
Candice Broce, director of the state Division of Family & Children Services and commissioner of the Georgia Department of Human Services, was called to testify by Colt Gray’s attorney. She managed Gray’s case after he was put in foster care while in detention because he was a minor and his father was in prison. There were also concerns about his mother’s contact with him.
Broce testified that Gray appeared to show improvement while being treated. After Marcee Gray was barred from speaking with her son by a July 2025 no-contact order and he started taking medication, staff at the youth detention center later told Broce it “changed him essentially into a different child,” she said.
“Colt got less stability than he needed, which made him even more vulnerable,” Allen argued, arguing that his client got wrapped up in an online community where he found the acceptance he craved but wasn't getting at home.
Ashley Gilland, an investigator with the Barrow County District Attorney's office, looks over the assault rifle used in the Apalachee High School shooting by suspect Colt Gray during Gray's sentencing at Barrow County Superior Court, Monday, July 27, 2026, in Winder, Ga. (Jason Getz/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
Judge Nicholas Primm reacts during the sentencing for Colt Gray, right, the 16-year-old Apalachee High School shooting suspect, at Barrow County Superior Court, Monday, July 27, 2026, in Winder, Ga. (Jason Getz/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
Colt Gray, the 16-year-old Apalachee High School shooting suspect, reacts during his sentencing at Barrow County Superior Court, Monday, July 27, 2026, in Winder, Ga. (Jason Getz/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
Colt Gray, the 16-year-old Apalachee High School shooting suspect, is led in by deputies for his sentencing at Barrow County Superior Court, Monday, July 27, 2026, in Winder, Ga. (Jason Getz/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
Colt Gray, the 16-year-old Apalachee High School shooting suspect, talks with his defense attorney Charlton Allen during his sentencing at Barrow County Superior Court, Monday, July 27, 2026, in Winder, Ga. (Jason Getz/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
