Brightspeed Fiber Internet Network Build Exceeds Year-End Goal, Reaches 1.82M Fiber-Enabled Locations

Company well-positioned to exceed goal of reaching more than 4 million homes and businesses

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Jan. 7, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Brightspeed, one of the nation's largest fiber broadband builders focused on empowering more homes with ultrafast, reliable internet, today announced its multi-gig-speed network has passed approximately 1.82 million locations — surpassing its year-end goal of 1.75 million fiber-enabled premises across its 20-state footprint. The company rolled out more than 17,600 miles of fiber cable in 2024 bringing the total fiber deployed since the build launch to more than 103,000 miles. Brightspeed's high-speed internet service is available immediately for installations to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in more than 160 communities, empowering more customers who lack quality connectivity options with ultrafast, reliable internet.

"When we launched in 2022, we made a multi-billion-dollar investment and a pledge to bring transformative fiber broadband connections to the communities we serve. 2024 proved to be a milestone year for us," said Brightspeed CEO Tom Maguire. "Our well-planned execution and the landmark reinvestment and support from our financial stakeholders has paid off, generating the momentum to move closer to achieving our upsized goal of passing more than four million locations with our fiber network build across our territories. With our proven operational expertise, we are well-positioned to exceed our goal."

"I am incredibly proud of our team members in the field who have stepped up to the challenge to reach millions of locations with our fiber network by working with local municipalities and constructing efficiently, all while continuing to serve our current customers," said Brightspeed Chief Operating Officer Manny Sampedro. "Various storms and hurricanes in 2024 severely impacted many of our customers across our southern communities and our teams worked around the clock to restore their services. Thanks to our industry-leading cloud platforms these challenges didn't interrupt our end-to-end fiber network construction workflows helping us deliver fully connected homes and businesses to our customers — many more than we expected."

The company is actively building its Brightspeed Fiber Internet network in 17 states, leveraging the latest XGS-PON (10-Gigabit Symmetric Passive Optical Network) technology to deliver multi-gig-speed symmetrical upload and download capabilities. The technology provides consistent responsiveness that enables multi-device households to connect, work, study, stream, communicate and game efficiently and reliably. Brightspeed Fiber Internet service plans also include a Wi-Fi router, ensuring optimal speed and performance in every room of today's device-dense homes and offices.

High-speed internet equals opportunity for households and businesses alike, and access to fast, reliable and affordable internet and Wi-Fi will help close the rural-urban digital divide. In addition to Brightspeed's multi-billion-dollar investment in deploying next-generation fiber-optic technology, the company has been awarded more than $238 million in local, state and federal broadband grants and funding, which includes the company's first BEAD program award from the state of Louisiana. These local, state and federal investments will expand the company's planned network build by nearly 121,000 in 14 states. Brightspeed continues to pursue state and federal grants and funds to further augment its planned build in the states that it serves, including BEAD program funding.

Families and businesses across our footprint are seeing more Brightspeed trucks in their local neighborhoods as crews work to bring families and businesses online. Customers can check for fiber availability in their area by visiting www.brightspeed.com/brightspeed-fiber-internet/ and sign up to receive alerts when service is available at their location.

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 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.

SOURCE Brightspeed