Brightspeed, which will be created once the agreed upon sale of Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) ILEC assets to Apollo-managed funds (NYSE: APO) closes (see “Brightspeed launches, builds fiber network toward U.S. rural, suburban communities”), has released its plans for fiber to the premises (FTTP) in South Carolina. The company says it will deploy create up to 14,000 new passings in Beaufort County by the end of next year during the first phase of its FTTP and another 36,000 fiber passings in the state in the future.
"Expanding access to faster, more reliable, and user-friendly internet is our number one priority," said Sherry Hessenthaler, operations strategy lead for Brightspeed. "High-quality broadband has never been more important, whether for work, education, telemedicine, entertainment, or simply staying connected. We are ready to hit the ground running with our deployment in Beaufort County and are looking forward to introducing customers to our state-of-the-art Brightspeed products and services."
Brightspeed will operate in 20 states; the company says it will invest at least $2 billion to expand its FTTP footprint in those markets. Plans have been announced for Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin. The FTTP infrastructure will leverage XGS-PON to enable the provision of multi-gigabit internet complemented with Wi-Fi 6 in the home.
