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Brightspeed Fiber Internet service is available at 1 million locations, the company announced this week
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A spokesperson told Fierce Network that sales of the fiber service increase each month
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Brightspeed will evaluate opportunities like the $4.7 billion in BEAD funding available across its footprint
Brightspeed's fiber expansion is gaining momentum.
This week the privately-backed company said its fiber network is now available at one million locations, notching that achievement just one year after it launched Brightspeed Fiber Internet. And sure, hitting that milestone is cool. But what really matters is that people are buying it.
A spokesperson for the company said Brightspeed Fiber Internet sales increase every month. “In fact, over the past four months we've seen a monthly average increase of 12%,” they told Fierce Network.
It's all part of the plan, with Brightspeed's majority owner, Apollo Global Management, committing $2 billion to expand the burgeoning fiber network.
Brightspeed laid out plans to reach 3 million passings following the close of Apollo's acquisition of Lumen Technologies’ ILEC assets in 20 states. The acquired territory includes more than 6.5 million locations across the Midwest and Eastern U.S., most of which is still served with copper.
Tandem to hitting the 1 million mark, the company said it would be accelerating its fiber expansion, thanks in part to grant funding in various locations across its footprint. According to the spokesperson, there is approximately $4.7 billion in BEAD funding available in Brightspeed’s footprint, and the company is “actively evaluating BEAD Program proposals and requirements” in those areas.
“We are making progress on our multi-year timeline to achieve our goal of reaching 3 million homes and businesses,” the Brightspeed rep continued. “We have also been fortunate to have been awarded grant funding in various states to augment our planned build.”
In the past, Brightspeed has been awarded more than $128 million in state and federal grants to build out its fiber network – the bulk of that in North Carolina.
Elsewhere, it scored two grants worth approximately $388,000 to expand its network in Alabama’s Pickens and St. Clair counties as part of the state’s Capital Projects Fund. In November, a Texas county gave Brightspeed the go-ahead on an $8 million fiber broadband project, $2.3 million of which was from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Brightspeed’s fiber projects also caught the eye of Abu Dhabi private equity firm Mubadala, which in May of 2023 announced plans to invest $500 million into the company.
The North Carolina-based company has more than 2 million passings currently in the engineering and construction process in 17 states. Its network is outfitted with XGS-PON from Calix to deliver gigabit speeds (a 1-gig plan costs $69/month), but Brightspeed Fiber Internet also has tiers as low as 200 Mbps ($40/month).
The spokesperson said they are “seeing an increasing number of customers opting for gig-speed services.”