Brightspeed Awarded $213 Million+ in Local, State, Federal Grants; Funding Will Further Expand High-Speed Fiber Broadband Network
2024年7月9日 - 9:30PM
Brightspeed, the nation’s fourth largest fiber broadband builder
focused on empowering more homes with ultrafast, reliable internet,
today announced that it has now been awarded more than $213 million
in local, state and federal grants and funds to extend its planned
fiber broadband network build to more homes and businesses in 12
states. Brightspeed is already investing more than $2 billion to
build a high-speed network to more than three million locations
across 17 states. These additional funds expand Brightspeed’s build
even further.
“Since we launched Brightspeed in 2022, we have been committed
to bridging the digital divide and bringing super-fast internet
service to millions of families and business owners who have
historically lacked quality options for high-speed connectivity — a
necessity in today’s hyper-connected world,” said Brightspeed CEO
Tom Maguire. “We are thrilled that state and federal officials have
the confidence in what we have done so far to provide us this
funding that will help us reach even more Americans.”
In the company’s home state of North Carolina, the N.C.
Department of Information Technology’s (NCDIT) Division of
Broadband and Digital Equity Completing Access to Broadband (CAB)
program funds, together with the Growing Rural Economies with
Access to Technology (GREAT) grants awarded to Brightspeed, provide
approximately $177 million in funding to help connect approximately
81,000 North Carolina households and businesses across 41 counties
to its blazing fast network. This brings Brightspeed’s total
commitment in its home state to more than 880,000 fiber-enabled
locations.
Brightspeed has been awarded $35.4 million in additional grants
and funding in 11 other states that would add another 28,000
locations: Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan,
Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and
Wisconsin.
“While these additional funds have added significantly more
locations to our planned network build, we could ultimately reach
6.5 million homes and businesses within our 20-state footprint,”
said Pamela Sherwood, vice president, broadband office at
Brightspeed. “The opportunity to bring fiber to more households is
huge. We’ll continue to seek out state and federal broadband grant
funding to further bridge the digital divide and look forward to
pursuing more than $4.7 billion in BEAD funding available within
our footprint.”
Brightspeed’s multi-billion-dollar investment in deploying a
state-of-the-art fiber network already provides more than 1.2
million homes and businesses in more than 160 communities across 20
states access to ultrafast, reliable connectivity. The company is
actively building its fiber broadband network in 17 states to reach
more than three million homes.
About Brightspeed
Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C. and with assets and associated
operations in 20 states, Brightspeed provides broadband and
telecommunications services through a network platform capable of
serving more than 6.5 million homes and businesses. Our more than
4,000 employees are committed to building a future where more
communities benefit from a more connected life, deploying a
state-of-the-art fiber network and a customer experience that makes
being connected as simple as it should be. For more information,
please visit www.brightspeed.com.
Gene Rodriguez Miller
Brightspeed
9803761837
gene.miller@brightspeed.com