The Buildout: SiFi builds open access network in California

The city of Placentia, California, and SiFi Networks this week launched service for the first neighborhood in Placentia FiberCity: a $35 million project to bring broadband access to the city's 20,000 homes, businesses and institutions. Construction is expected to be completed on the open access network this year, with service being delivered by GigabitNow. As with SiFi Networks' other builds, Placentia FiberCity is privately funded. SiFi Networks has funding from private equity firm APG, recently raising $350 million for its fiber builds.

The town of Timnath, Colorado, has partnered with Pulse – the municipal broadband provider for Loveland, Colorado – to provide broadband services throughout Timnath. In a press release, Pulse said it will "immediately" begin initial planning and permitting processes, with construction anticipated to begin this year and initial service launches in six to nine months. Construction of the full town is expected to take four to five years and is being paid for initially with $20 million in town capital improvement funds. Under the agreement, Pulse will provide a 25% share of gross income on broadband, which will result in full payback in 26 years. Timnath has roughly 1,991 households according to Census data.

Kinetic by Windstream announced a $10.3 million public-private partnership with Chattooga County, Georgia, to deliver fiber broadband to 3,400 homes, schools and businesses. According to a press release, Kinetic will invest $7.2 million and cover cost overruns and the county will provide $3.1 million in state grant money from the American Rescue Plan. Kinetic will lay 320 miles of fiber and expects to complete construction next year.

Surf Internet launched service in Valparaiso, Indiana, delivering speeds up to 2 Gbit/s. The company is in the midst of a $20 million fiber construction project to bring high-speed broadband to roughly 10,000 homes in the region. Work is expected to be complete in 2025.

The US Treasury Department announced it is awarding $77.5 million to the state of Ohio in capital projects funds for broadband infrastructure deployment. The funds will be distributed through the Ohio Residential Broadband Expansion Grant Program (ORBEG) to deliver broadband service of 100/100 Mbit/s to an estimated 15,000 locations. According to a fact sheet about the funding, that number is roughly 4.5% of the state's locations that still lack broadband. Ohio is further expected to receive $793.68 million through the federal government's Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program to reach its remaining unserved locations, according to allocations released by the NTIA in June.

The state of Alabama awarded $7.86 million for broadband expansion in four counties. The new projects are expected to reach more than 6,700 households, businesses and community anchor institutions. According to a press release from Governor Kay Ivey's office, award recipients include Spectrum Southeast for two projects ($5.68 million to reach 5,045 locations) and GoNetspeed ($2.18 million to reach 1,708 locations).

GoNetspeed further announced new deployments in Rockland, Maine, and North Haven, Connecticut, this week. In Rockland, the company will invest $2.1 million to deliver fiber broadband to 3,100 homes and businesses. Construction is slated for completion by the end of 2023. In North Haven, GoNetspeed is investing $4.2 million to deliver fiber broadband to 4,300 homes and businesses, with construction to wrap up by fall 2023 and the first customers to "be eligible for service installation as early as next month," according to a press release. GoNetspeed is building out fiber networks in nine states in partnership with Oak Hill Capital.

Charter announced it has entered a partnership with Wayne County, New York, to deliver broadband to nearly 1,400 unserved homes. The $14.6 million project includes $1 million from the New York State Public Service Commission and $8 million from the county's American Rescue Plan funds, plus funds from Charter. According to the company, construction will start "in the coming months" and take roughly two years. In other Charter news, Spectrum announced it completed phase one of a broadband buildout in Wildwood, Missouri, for which it also received American Rescue Plan funds, that is expected to connect more than 2,000 homes and businesses. The full project is slated for completion in 2024.

Ting Internet this week announced that its 2-Gig fiber service is available to initial neighborhoods in Colorado Springs. The company is building out as an anchor tenant on a Colorado Springs Utilities-owned fiber network, which is expected to ultimately serve over 200,000 addresses. In a press release, Ting said it is "steadily expanding across all of Colorado Springs, with full municipal access expected by the end of 2028."

Lumos held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to launch its fiber optic network in Orange County, North Carolina. The company is in the midst of a six-phase buildout to reach 22,000 addresses across the county, with roughly 400 locations live with this week's launch. For its Orange County build, Lumos won $10 million from the state's share of American Rescue Plan funding to reach 6,300 unserved homes and further committed "millions more" to increase the project scope. In a press release, Lumos said it is also building fiber "to approximately two dozen county-owned anchor institutions, including the fire station where the ribbon cutting was held."

TDS last week announced that it completed construction on its fiber network project in Englewood, Tennessee, reaching 1,200 addresses. The privately funded project delivers residential broadband speeds up to 8 Gbit/s (up to 10 Gbit/s for businesses).