Windstream is making progress with its ongoing network upgrade efforts, announcing that it spent $80 million since 2014 to improve residential broadband services in Georgia.
But the telco is not stopping there.
The service provider said it expects to invest another $38 million in 2016 to extend faster speeds to more users, improve reliability and "future proofing" the core network for emerging needs.
Today, Windstream serves over 620,000 homes with its high speed Internet service, while 93 percent of the state's customers are served by fiber-based facilities.
Finally, 75 percent of the households in Georgia can get access to 10 Mbps speeds or higher, a figure it says it will reach 84 percent by the end of the year.
While these are certainly positive trends, Windstream still has its work cut out for itself as it continues to battle an ongoing trend of broadband losses, a trend that continued into the fourth quarter.
During the fourth quarter, Windstream lost a total of 14,500 subscribers, ending the period with a total of 1.095 million customers, down from the 1.13 million subscribers it had in the same period a year ago.
As part of its Project Excel initiative, which includes bringing fiber to more of its remote DSLAM locations, Windstream will deploy VDSL2 to deliver a number of new speeds, ranging from 50 to 100 Mbps. The service rolled out these speeds to about 1 million locations in the fourth quarter.
Additionally, the service provider is going to be rolling out 1 Gbps FTTH services to a number of select markets.
Following an initial trial in Lexington, Ky., the service provider said it plans to deliver the 1 Gbps service in Lincoln, Neb., Sugar Land, Texas, and Concord and Matthews, N.C. However, it did not indicate if Georgia will be a future target yet.
For more:
- see the release
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