![]() Because utilities and telcos use one another’s facilities, partnerships between electric utilities and telcos make sense.Ĭincinnati Bell has partnered with BREC, which serves members in portions of Butler, Hamilton, Preble and Montgomery counties in Ohio.ĭuring the first phase, Cincinnati Bell will make its Fioptics FTTH service available to more than 2,000 BREC members. Service providers and electric utilities are making last-mile broadband expansion pacts. “It’s not our core competency.” Last-Mile Pacts “We have no desire to be an ISP,” said Brad Hall, vice president of external affairs for Appalachian Power, during a UTC webinar. Riggs noted, “We’re also seeing investor-owned utilities bringing broadband to underserved and unserved areas.”Īlabama Power and Entergy entered pacts with C Spire to deploy fiber in their respective electric service territories, and Appalachian Power is working with GigaBeam Networks to bring broadband to unserved customers in Grayson County, Virginia. “Utilities have successfully bid for FCC Connect America Fund II funds, while others are awaiting the results of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund auction.” “Hundreds of utilities are leveraging existing infrastructure to provide wholesale and retail broadband access,” she said. Sheryl Riggs, CEO of the Utilities Technology Council (UTC), said during the Broadband Communities 2020 Virtual Summit that more of UTC’s members are providing broadband. What’s more, an Institute for Local Self-Reliance report revealed that 90 electric cooperatives have built FTTH networks. According to a 2019 fact sheet from the National Rural Electric Cooperatives Association (NRECA), electric cooperatives could bring broadband to 6.3 million households. Joining Colquitt in the approach of providing broadband via a partner are Butler Rural Electric Cooperative (BREC) in Ohio, Mohave Electric Cooperative in Arizona and Warren Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation (WRECC) in Kentucky.Įlectric cooperatives have become a new savior for rural towns that have few, if any, broadband options. “Colquitt looked at which providers had infrastructure on our system, and Windstream answered the call.” “We recognized that while we couldn’t do it on our own, we could not put our heads in the sand,” says Danny Nichols, general manager of Colquitt EMC. When Colquitt Electric Membership Corporation (EMC) needed a solution to solve its community’s broadband problem, it had two options: build a fiber network itself or partner with an area provider that already served its territory.ĭozens of co-ops provide fiber to the home (FTTH) themselves across the United States, but Georgia-based Colquitt chose to partner with Windstream, a privately owned, high-speed internet service provider.
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