Gigapower sets expansion in Florida

Gigapower, the AT&T-BlackRock fiber joint venture, sure seems to be enamored with the Sunshine State.

After tagging three areas in Florida for a fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) network buildout (Okaloosa County, Crestview and Fort Walton), Gigapower announced Tuesday that it will likewise build fiber to "thousands" of homes and businesses in the town of Eatonville.

Gigapower didn't specifically size the buildout, but Eatonville has a population of about 2,349 and nearly 950 total housing units, according to the latest data from the US Census Bureau.

The JV will operate an open access network there, with AT&T as the network's initial anchor tenant. Gigapower has yet to reveal any additional tenants, but the JV previously has said it has been approached by several Internet service providers, including cable operators and "non-facility-based ISPs."

Gigapower is initially focused on building open access fiber networks to 1.5 million locations that fall outside of AT&T's legacy wireline footprint. In addition to the aforementioned areas of Florida, Gigapower's phase-one network build also includes Las Vegas, parts of Arizona (Mesa, Chandler and Gilbert), portions of northeastern Pennsylvania (including Wilkes-Barre and Scranton), parts of Alabama and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The JV also has ambitions to build beyond its initial target of 1.5 million locations, including potential builds in unserved and underserved areas that tie into the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program.

According to regulatory documents, Gigapower's XGS-PON network will initially support symmetrical speeds up to 5 Gbit/s. Execs have noted that the network will also be software-upgradable to deliver up to 20 Gbit/s.