The Buildout: Ohio awards $10M for DigitalC's low-cost broadband network

Ohio announced it awarded a $10 million grant to the nonprofit DigitalC, which is building out a low-cost, fixed wireless broadband service throughout the city of Cleveland. In addition to the $10 million awarded this week, the $53 million project will be funded with $20 million from Cleveland's American Rescue Plan allocation; $20 million from the Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel Foundation and the David and Inez Myers Foundation; and $3 million previously awarded by the federal government. According to Cleveland.com, DigitalC won the Cleveland contract last year over proposals from AT&T, Spectrum and T-Mobile. DigitalC aims to start construction this month and complete the project by mid-2025. The build will bring broadband up to 100 Mbit/s to the city's 170,000 households, with prices locked at $18 per month for approximately ten years.

Nebraska this week awarded 22 grants for nearly $20 million from the Nebraska Broadband Bridge Program (NBBP) to deliver connectivity to 1,830 homes and businesses. The funding was awarded to ten providers, including Hartington Telecommunications ($7.16 million for four projects), Glenwood Telecommunications ($3.5 million for five projects), Pinpoint Communications ($2.6 million for three projects), Cox Nebraska Telcom ($2.1 million for two projects), Cambridge Telephone Company ($1.12 million) and Spectrum Mid‐America ($491,881). See the full list of awarded projects here. Nebraska was awarded $87.7 million via the US Treasury's capital projects fund in 2022 to ultimately deliver service to 22,000 locations through the NBBP.

Comporium announced that it completed a network upgrade in Lancaster County, South Carolina, bringing fiber speeds up to 1 Gbit/s to 274 homes and businesses. In a press release, the company said it received funding for the project from the state, via the American Rescue Plan, and that the project investment in this region was $1.75 million. Comporium is building out elsewhere in South Carolina with grant funding and was just awarded an additional $51.9 million to connect 6,610 addresses in the state by end 2025.

GoNetspeed launched broadband services in parts of Connecticut and New York this week. The company, which is funded by Oak Hill Capital, completed construction on its $1.5 million network in Plymouth, Connecticut, bringing broadband to 2,700 homes and businesses. GoNetspeed also completed construction on its $1.4 million network in Thomaston, Connecticut, delivering service to 1,800 homes and businesses. And in New York, GoNetspeed launched services for initial construction areas in the City of Lockport, where the company is investing $9 million to deliver fiber to 8,700 homes and businesses by the end of summer 2024.

Shentel's Glo Fiber has started engineering work to build a fiber network in Springettsbury Township, Pennsylvania. Construction on the project will begin in 2025 and take approximately 18-24 months, according to a press release. The new network is expected to reach more than 7,500 homes and businesses.

Consolidated's Fidium Fiber this week announced that its service is now available for all previously unserved residents on Great Diamond Island and Little Diamond Island, Maine. The project was funded in part with a grant from the Maine Connectivity Authority (MCA). According to the latest census data, Great Diamond Island and Little Diamond Island have a combined population of under 300 residents.

Charter's Spectrum last week said it launched services for more than 3,500 homes and businesses in Carroll County, Georgia. The build is part of Spectrum's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) commitment, through which it was awarded $1.2 billion.