The Buildout: Networks galore from Comcast, Surf and more

Comcast has completed network construction in the towns of Bolton and Edwards, Mississippi. The company held a ceremony with elected officials this week to kick off the new network, which delivers connectivity to more than 1,700 homes and businesses. Comcast also donated nearly 400 laptops to local elementary schools as part of its community investment.

Glo Fiber, the fiber broadband arm of Shentel, launched services in parts of Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, the company said this week. Construction, which began earlier this year, is expected to wrap up by the end of year and ultimately deliver broadband to over 2,000 homes and businesses.

Surf Internet kicked off its network launch in Howell, Michigan, where residents and small businesses can now access its services. In a press release, the company said the build was funded in part with a $250,000 grant from Genoa Township and was otherwise made possible by Surf's recent acquisition of MiSignal fiber network assets. The City of Howell claims 4,861 homes, according to Census.gov.

GoNetspeed this week announced construction and service launches in Thomaston, Maine, and the Village of Sloan, New York. In Thomaston, GoNetspeed said it is starting construction this fall on a network that will deliver fiber broadband to "a majority" of the town's homes and businesses by the end of this year. Thomaston has roughly 1,308 households, according to Census Reporter. Meanwhile, GoNetspeed's services went live in parts of the Village of Sloan, where the company has invested $1 million in a fiber network that will ultimately reach more than 1,100 locations. GoNetspeed is building out across nine states with funding from Oak Hill Capital.

TDS has launched initial services in Watertown, Wisconsin. The company is in the midst of building out a fiber network that will ultimately deliver service of up to 8 Gbit/s to 9,300 homes and businesses, according to a press release.

Outer Reach Broadband, an ISP in Maine, launched service in Skowhegan, Maine, this week. The company is using next-generation fixed wireless access technology from Tarana Wireless to deliver the service, which is accessible to over 3,000 Skowhegan homes, according to a press release.

Florida's Tri-County Electric Cooperative (TCEC) and Conexon celebrated connecting more than 1,300 members to Connect, the ISP arm of TCEC. TCEC kicked off its network buildout in partnership with Conexon last year, with plans to construct 2,400 miles of fiber to bring broadband service to between 12,000 and 15,000 homes and businesses across four counties.

The NTIA awarded over $3 million through the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program (TBCP) for broadband infrastructure projects in New Mexico (Pueblo of Pojoaque), Nevada (South Fork Band Council, Winnemucca Indian Colony of Nevada and Te-Moak Battle Mountain Band), Oklahoma (Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma) and Washington (Quileute Tribe of the Quileute Reservation). Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, in Oregon, received nearly $500,000 for planning, engineering and sustainability work for a wireless network. The remaining projects will connect over 210 locations. According to the NTIA, with these new grants, over $1.79 billion has been awarded to 198 tribal entities through the program.

The USDA on Monday awarded $667 million in grants and loans for rural broadband projects in 22 states and the Marshall Islands through the ReConnect Program. Specifically, this round saw $493 million delivered in grants and $174 million in loans. Overall, these projects are expected to connect more than 120,000 people, businesses and farms. In a press release, NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association said its members had received nearly $350 million through this round of loans and grants, with awards going to local providers including Bush-Tell ($29.9 million) and Cordova Telephone Cooperative ($34 million) in Alaska; Wabash Telephone Cooperative in Illinois ($24.27 million); AllBand Communications Cooperative in Michigan ($12.7 million) and others. This latest round of ReConnect follows a $714 million round of funding awarded in June. On a call with reporters, Biden administration officials confirmed that the administration has committed $3.1 billion for 179 ReConnect projects thus far to bring connectivity to over 430,000 rural Americans. The program still has $260 million remaining that "will be invested over the next several months," said Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.

Several rural broadband providers in North Dakota held a groundbreaking ceremony to kick off roughly $119 million in fiber broadband projects, funded by "four separate state and federal funding sources, including the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)," according to a press release. The providers and funding amounts involved in the buildout are Polar Communications ($49.6 million), MLGC ($31 million), BEK Communications Cooperative ($21 million), Halstad Telephone Company ($12.27 million) and Red River Communications ($5.26 million).

Empire Access announced this week that it is expanding its network across Elmira, New York, with construction expected to wrap up in early October 2023. The areas included in this expansion are "North Elmira, South Elmira, and the City of Elmira, New York," according to the company. The news follows Empire Access' initial announcement earlier this month that it would expand its services to South Elmira, New York. Empire Access, a communications provider founded in the late 1800s, is building out fiber in the Northeast with private equity funds through Antin Infrastructure Partners.