Brightspeed Announces Initial Fiber Build Markets for Tennessee

All-Fiber, Gig-Pace Community to Attain 60,000 Potential Prospects in Tennessee by Finish of 2023

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Aug. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Brightspeed as we speak introduced that it’ll ship, by the top of 2023, 60,000 new fiber passings within the first part of its fiber community construct within the state of Tennessee. In subsequent years of its community initiative, the corporate plans so as to add over 70,000 fiber passings for a complete of over 130,000 new fiber-enabled places in its Tennessee working territory.

“We couldn’t be extra excited to share the small print of our preliminary fiber construct in Tennessee. Excessive-quality, dependable broadband has by no means been extra vital, whether or not for work, schooling, telemedicine, leisure, or simply staying linked,” mentioned Chris Creager, Chief Administration Officer of Brightspeed. “We will not wait to introduce our state-of-the-art merchandise, and easy, intuitive buyer expertise to households and companies throughout our service space.” 

Tennessee is likely one of the 20 states that make up Brightspeed’s footprint, encompassing primarily rural and suburban areas of the nation. In complete, Brightspeed intends to speculate a minimum of $2 billion in its fiber optics transformation, which is predicted to succeed in as much as 3 million houses and companies over the following 5 years, together with in lots of places the place fiber and superior expertise haven’t traditionally been deployed.

By the top of 2023, Brightspeed will convey quicker, extra dependable web and Wi-Fi to 60,000 residential and enterprise places in markets inside Carter, Greene, and Washington counties.

Creager emphasised the significance of Brightspeed’s fiber funding to the people and companies of the broader area people: “We’re happy that Johnson Metropolis, Tennessee will likely be house to certainly one of Brightspeed’s main operational work facilities. We stay and work right here, and we wish our communities to have the power to compete and flourish in as we speak’s digital financial system.”

Past its preliminary community construct plans, Brightspeed is presently evaluating extra areas for consideration for Tennessee’s broadband infrastructure initiatives. “It is our mission to convey extra fiber-based web to prospects throughout our footprint. We’re wanting ahead to taking part in a serious approach in present and future broadband grant applications,” mentioned Creager.

“In Tennessee, we have prioritized strategic investments in broadband infrastructure to make sure our rural communities are linked and have each alternative to thrive,” mentioned Governor Invoice Lee. “I welcome Brightspeed to Johnson Metropolis and commend this firm for its partnership to extend connectivity throughout Higher East Tennessee.”

State Senator Rusty Crowe mentioned, “I definitely admire this initiative as we’ve got labored tirelessly these previous few years to extend broadband entry—particularly in these rural areas the place it’s wanted probably the most. This can transfer Northeast Tennessee ahead, not solely from a enterprise perspective, however from an academic perspective as nicely. This will likely be particularly vital for our college students whose schooling and curriculum require quite a lot of pc work from home. I admire Brightspeed for the work they’re doing in my Senate District and our state as an entire.”

Brightspeed is leveraging the newest expertise improvements as a part of its copper-to-fiber transformation, together with the deployment of XGS-PON, a modern structure able to symmetrical web speeds exceeding 1Gbps, and the fiber essential to ship ultra-fast connections to houses and companies.

Brightspeed will initially be comprised of incumbent native change provider (ILEC) belongings and related operations of Lumen Applied sciences (NYSE: LUMN), that are the topic of a pending acquisition by Apollo-managed funds (NYSE: APO). The corporate has secured all needed state-required regulatory approvals within the 20 states in its working footprint. The events count on to acquire remaining FCC approval within the third quarter, and to shut the transaction early within the fourth quarter.

Brightspeed plans to announce extra state-specific community construct plans over the following few weeks.

For extra details about Brightspeed, go to the corporate’s web site, www.brightspeed.com.

About Brightspeed
Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C. and anticipated to have belongings and related operations in 20 states, Brightspeed will present broadband and telecommunications companies by a community platform able to serving greater than 6 million houses and companies. The corporate goals to bridge the digital divide by deploying a state-of-the-art fiber community and a buyer expertise that makes staying linked easy and seamless. For extra details about Brightspeed, go to the corporate’s web site, www.brightspeed.com.

Media
Erik Carlson
Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher
(212) 355-4449
[email protected]

SOURCE Brightspeed