Blue Stream Fiber, Consolidated, Fiber Fast Homes, Glo Fiber, Kinetic and Race Communications are all stepping up their efforts to expand fiber-based broadband in various communities through a mix of venture capital and state funding sources.
Blue Stream Fiber enters the Houston broadband market
Blue Stream Fiber is taking on the Houston market, bringing internet amenity services and advanced infrastructure, which it claims will offer billion-dollar savings. The company said these savings are achieved through a combination of infrastructure investments that Blue Stream Fiber provides at the company’s cost to partners, a revenue-generating amenity service model, and competitive pricing for end customers. As a result, Houstonians who live in communities that sign up for Blue Stream Fiber’s services can experience up to 50 percent savings for internet, phone and TV services. Serving residents of multi-family apartments and master planned communities, homeowner associations (HOA), condominium associations (COA), developers, and builders, Blue Stream Fiber's network infrastructure will be deployed across new and existing communities.
Consolidated wins $11.8M grant for 12 NH rural community fiber build
Consolidated Communications has been awarded a $11.8 million grant to build a new fiber network across 12 communities in rural New Hampshire. When complete, this project will bring Consolidated’s fiber service, Fidium, to more than 1,500 homes and businesses in Barnstead, Barrington, Belmont, Epsom, Farmington, Francestown, Gilmanton, Gilmanton Iron Works, Lancaster, Pittsfield and Strafford. The grant was funded through New Hampshire’s Broadband Matching Grants Initiative (BMGI), which provides grants to internet service providers and municipalities to improve broadband availability across New Hampshire. BMGI is funded through the Department of Business and Economic Affairs using the state’s Capital Projects Fund (CPF) allocation. Consolidated will invest $7.7 million for this $19.5 million project.
Consolidated to make Lincoln County the first all-fiber county in Maine
Consolidated Communications is partnering with Lincoln County to bring fiber internet access to over 38,000 area homes and businesses. While the $6 million grant will help fund fiber expansion to more than 14,000 locations in Lincoln County, Consolidated’s total build will reach more than 38,000 homes and businesses across Wiscasset, Alna, Dresden, Boothbay, Boothbay Harbor, Southport, Edgecomb, Waldoboro, Whitefield, Nobleboro, and Woolwich (part of Sagadahoc County).
The Maine Connectivity Authority’s (MCA) board awarded the grant to Consolidated as part of the Partnerships for Enabling Middle Mile (PEMM) program. PEMM aims to address large-scale, regional broadband gaps through middle mile infrastructure and maximizing private and local financial contributions. In addition to the grant from MCA, the project includes funding from Lincoln County American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and more than $20 million investment from Consolidated.
Fiber Fast Homes brings FTTH to Belle Vie Development in Honey Grove, TX.
Fiber Fast Homes will partner with Roost Design & Build to provide fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) Internet to 1,800 homes in their Belle Vie community outside Dallas over the next ten years. Fiber Fast Homes’ fiber 2 Gigabit solution will allow excellent Wi-Fi coverage to the expansive community. Belle Vie is one of the area’s premier developments, and it was designed by Josh and Ashley Eckel, who have recently been featured on HGTV for their architectural prowess. In pre-sale now, Belle Vie will feature a beautiful state-of-the-art marina on Bois D’ Arc Lake, a chapel, a boutique hotel, and quaint restaurants throughout the community. The development’s design took inspiration from the charm of Lake Como, Italy and incorporated the high design standards found at Rosemary Beach and Alys Beach in Florida.
Glo Fiber brings fiber Internet to Frederick County, Maryland
Glo Fiber has begun constructing fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband services in Frederick County, MD. Over the past couple of years, Glo Fiber has been awarded multiple grants from the Maryland Office of Statewide Broadband to deliver a fiber network to over 4,500 unserved locations in the County. The initial design and engineering phases are now complete, and the construction phase is underway. Independent of the grants, Glo Fiber launched a multi-gigabit internet service in the City of Frederick and is expanding into more neighborhoods.
Kinetic completes $8.2M broadband project for Poyen, Ark.
Kinetic has activated its fiber gigabit service in the Poyen, Ark. area. The telco hosted a public ribbon cutting on Sept. 11 to commemorate this service availability at the Poyen Ballpark. The development within Poyen is part of a larger Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) $8.2 million project, which connected fiber internet to an additional 2,100 homes and businesses in the area. This is part of Kinetic’s multi-year $2 billion project to provide premium-quality internet to historically underserved or unserved areas. Many other towns in Grant County, like Leola, Prattsville, and Sheridan, also benefit from Kinetic’s High-Speed internet, including Tull, where construction was completed in August. Before this new build, some internet speeds in the area ranged between 15-245 Mbps. With Kinetic’s new multi-gigabit fiber, Poyen residents can experience multi-gigabit speeds, saving them hours when downloading a state-of-the-art 50 GB video game, for example.
Race Communications raises $500M to accelerate California expansion
Race Communications has secured more than $500 million in additional capital to accelerate the expansion of its fiber network across the state. This capital raise includes $375 million in equity from Oak Hill Capital, the existing majority investor, and its limited partners. The funding also features incremental debt financing from existing lender AB Private Credit Investors, who will participate in the equity round. This significant infusion of capital will support Race's ambitious plan to extend its FTTH network to as many as 1 million locations throughout California over the next several years.
Lightwave+BTR is tracking service providers' ongoing efforts to extend broadband to more homes and businesses via our Building Broadband series. If you want to share a new broadband build, contact Lightwave+BTR’s editor-in-chief, Sean Buckley, at [email protected].
