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Bluepeak plans to enter 10 new markets in Oklahoma and Texas this year
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It’s aiming to add 85,000 homes passed in 2024 and 125,000 passings in 2025
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Bluepeak’s using private capital to get there, having just received a strategic investment from Ares Management
Regional fiber ISP Bluepeak is eyeing a busy 2024 in terms of market expansion and homes passed.
The operator plans to enter 10 new markets in Oklahoma and Texas this year – a move fueled by a more than $100 million investment. And there’s “potentially more to come” on the market front, Bluepeak Chief Commercial Officer Lana Frank told Fierce.
Bluepeak late last year unveiled its first Texas market in the city of Denison, where it’s currently undertaking network construction. Frank told Fierce Network Muskogee, Oklahoma will be the next market the company will announce. Other market reveals will come “as soon as early next month” and over the course of 2024.
Bluepeak in 2023 reached more than 78,000 homes passed. Its next goal is to add more than 200,000 homes passed in the next two years, including 85,000 in 2024 and 125,000 in 2025.
Just to get a sense of Bluepeak’s footprint, it currently has 18 expansion markets across North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wyoming. It also recently met its target of offering service at more than 294,000 locations across all its markets.
Asked why Bluepeak chose Texas as a new state, Frank said it’s all about customer demand. The company has researched “which communities are looking for an alternative choice” of ISP, so it’s trying to balance that demand and “working with those local authorities” to get service to those markets.
“If we look at where our footprint is today…we can move a bit quicker if it’s within proximity to where our footprint is,” she said. “So keeping in the general area, but we’re open to any market or any state where we find there’s consumer demand and a need for an alternative choice.”
The $100 million expansion comes shortly after Bluepeak at the end of February received a strategic investment from Ares Management. The firm along with GI Data Infrastructure (which acquired Bluepeak in 2021) are now investing in the company.
Private capital gets the ball rolling
Frank declined to comment how much capital Ares is putting into Bluepeak’s expansion, but she said Ares’ investment “really makes it an exciting time to be at Bluepeak, because it allows us to accelerate the growth.”
The “vast majority” of Bluepeak’s expansion markets are privately funded, which is how the operator’s been able to move at its “rapid pace,” said Frank. Although Bluepeak has used public funds in the past, that was in its Vast Broadband days (before its acquisition).
Private funds are the company’s bread and butter, but Frank said “we will certainly not turn down looking at public funds” if it makes sense to do so.
She also mentioned the importance of having “meaningful conversations” with city officials, “not just pick a market and say we’re coming” but keeping up communication with them as Bluepeak goes through its build.
“If they’re hearing things that are working well, we can tell them ‘here’s what happening along the way,’ they can share that to the community,” Frank explained. “And if for some reason there’s something that did not go as well, we want to make sure we’re first on it or we can help them understand that it wasn’t something we might have created.”
Size isn't everything
In our previous conversation with Bluepeak, the company said it’s focused on bringing “big city internet” to smaller communities. It’s not so much the size of the town that matters, Frank pointed out, but rather the “options [that] are available to them.”
“So it’s not that we’re looking for a minimum size of a market – not at all. What does the community have and what can we bring as a superior solution to what’s available today? That’s what we go after,” she said.
Curious about other fiber operators building in the central U.S.? Check out our coverage of Fastwyre, Novos Fiber, Vexus Fiber and Vyve Broadband.