Brightspeed is looking to deploy fiber at a furious pace following the expected close later this year of its deal to buy ILEC assets from Lumen Technologies, targeting rollouts to 1 million locations by end-2023. It has now laid out plans to reach more than half of its goal, naming Alabama as the fourth state where it’s planning a significant project.
The operator said it will initially target 60,000 fiber passings in the state by the end of next year, adding to the more than 10,000 existing passings it will have there once the Lumen deal wraps. Work will be focused in Baldwin, Covington, Dale, Elmore, Fayette, Geneva, Henry, Pickens and Tallapoosa counties.
In subsequent years, Brightspeed said it plans to build up to 60,000 additional passings in Alabama to take its total new passings there to 120,000 as it works its way to an overall goal of reaching 3 million locations over the next five years.
Beyond its own plans, Brightspeed’s Operations Strategy Lead Sherry Hessenthaler said in a statement it is also eyeing an “opportunity to partner with the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) to pursue a possible extension of the build and bring fiber-based internet to even more customers in the state.”
The operator previously told Fierce it plans to reach 1 million homes in its first full year of operation. Thus far, it has announced projects that will get it more than halfway to its goal, including builds in North Carolina, Virginia and Texas.
North Carolina represents its largest undertaking, with 300,000 locations targeted by the end of 2023 and a total of up to 800,000 as part of its five-year plan. It is also looking to reach 120,000 locations in Texas by the end of next year and as many as 280,000 total. Brightspeed’s plan for Virginia includes 60,000 locations by end-2023 and up to 130,000 total.
The operator previously named fiber vendor Corning, cloud platform provider Calix and construction company Dycom among its suppliers. In April, COO Tom Maguire dished on the special architecture it is planning to use for its rollouts. The full story on that can be found here.