The Buildout: Fidium Fiber makes moves in Maine, Michigan announces $238M in grants

Consolidated's Fidium Fiber announced progress in Vermont and Maine this week. According to the company, more than 41,000 homes and businesses in Lewiston, Portland and Scarborough, Maine, can now access its gigabit-speed services. In an announcement, the company said it has built fiber to 190,000 homes – or more than one third of Maine households – in under two years. The company also announced this week that its services are available for more than 10,000 homes and businesses in Vermont, in the towns of Bakersfield, Colchester, Essex, Fairfield, Hancock, Middlebury, Milton, Ripton, Salisbury, Weybridge and Williston, with "114,000 Vermonters" expected to gain access by the end of the year. Consolidated is in the midst of a multi-year effort to upgrade over 70% of its passings to fiber by mid-2026.

The state of Michigan announced preliminary plans to award $238 million for 24 projects that will connect 106,000 unserved locations to broadband across the state, including 98,808 homes, 7,085 businesses and 211 community anchor institutions. As per Michigan's Realizing Opportunity with Broadband Infrastructure Networks (ROBIN) grant program, the initial grant recommendations will be finalized after a 45-day comment and objection period. Preliminary awardees include Spectrum (for 28,167 locations), Frontier (4,701 locations) and AT&T (3,304 locations). Providers will contribute $310 million for a total project investment of $575.3 million. Final awards will be made in August, according to the state. Funding comes from the American Rescue Plan capital projects fund.

Spectrum this week launched services in Marlboro County, South Carolina, for 750 homes and businesses. The launch is part of the company's commitment through the FCC's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF).

GoNetspeed, which is building out fiber in Clinton and Westbrook, Connecticut, to serve 7,300 locations, announced progress on those deployments this week. According to the company, homes and businesses in Clinton can now sign up for service installation, and construction has begun in Westbrook. The builds are being funded with a $3.8 million investment from GoNetspeed, which has financial support from Oak Hill Capital.

The Lenoir City Utilities Board (LCUB) in Tennessee announced that its fiber broadband service – LCUB Fiber Broadband – turned services on for its first household in an underserved area on Monday. Construction on the three-year grid upgrade project and phased rollout began in August 2022, according to a press release, and will ultimately bring gigabit speed services to all LCUB Electric customers. LCUB serves 69,024 customers, according to its website.

Mercury Broadband will invest $2 million to deliver broadband to 17,000 homes and businesses in Crawfordsville, Indiana, according to local reporting. Construction is expected to be completed in mid-2024 with customers to start coming online early next year. In connection with its build plans, Mercury Broadband will construct a 12,000 square foot service center with office and warehouse space, set to employ roughly 30 people.

Comporium, which delivers service across the Carolinas, announced that it is in the "final stages" of a build that will deliver 1-Gig speeds to nearly 800 addresses in Transylvania County, North Carolina. The news follows last week's announcement that Comporium completed a buildout with York Electric Cooperative (YEC) to bring fiber broadband to nearly 5,000 South Carolina homes.