Building Broadband: Alaska Communications plans to enhance broadband for 100K homes and businesses; Brightspeed connects Jacksonville, NC, locations to fiber internet

Alaska Communications to enhance broadband for 100K homes and businesses
As part of its ongoing network expansion, Alaska Communications is launching improved broadband service to approximately 100,000 businesses and homes across Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau and the Kenai Peninsula. Powered by fiber-fed, fixed wireless technology, Alaska Communications is expanding broadband access with speeds of up to 300/100 Mbps. North Anchorage is available now and midtown and south Anchorage are coming soon. This high-speed service is available for businesses and residents in the following Anchorage neighborhoods: downtown, Government Hill, Mountain View and Airport Heights. The Anchorage hillside, South Anchorage, and Midtown Anchorage will be available later this summer. By the end of 2025, 50,000 locations in Anchorage alone will be eligible. Alaska Communications plans to improve or expand its fiber-fed fixed wireless network in Fairbanks, Juneau and the Kenai Peninsula starting later this year.

Brightspeed connects Jacksonville, NC, locations to fiber internet
Brightspeed is connecting thousands of homes and businesses in Eastern North Carolina to its fiber network. The company has 35,000 locations in Jacksonville under construction that will soon be equipped with fiber. According to Broadband Now, only 40% of people living in North Carolina have access to a fiber internet plan. That means that six out of ten homes and businesses in the state are missing out on the kind of connectivity they need to thrive in today’s economy. Once the full buildout is complete, approximately 60% of Jacksonville’s total population -- nearly 43,000 families and small businesses -- will have access to Brightspeed’s multi-gig-speed fiber internet service.

Conexon Connect’s latest fiber network build will reach over 67K rural Georgians
Conexon Connect is celebrating its latest business milestone: the completion of its largest fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) project to date, in partnership with Central Georgia EMC. Completed in May, the 3,500-mile all-fiber network, Connect's 11th completed project, now delivers multi-gigabit-speed broadband service to 100% of EMC's member base across 14 counties. The project also enables the co-op to benefit from smart grid capabilities for its electrical infrastructure. Conexon Connect has secured over $2 billion in federal, state, and local funding and designed more than 200,000 miles of fiber nationwide, resulting in the connection of more than 1.1 million rural Americans to world-class fiber broadband.

EarthLink provides a DSL migration path with Tarana’s broadband wireless solution
Residents in several communities in Florida, including Cross City, now have access to broadband, thanks to the launch of Wireless Partners' network. Wireless Partners announced a $70 million partnership with Aspire Hardware Solutions to secure Tarana equipment that will replace DSL in the Southeast and Northeast regions of the United States. The new network deployed in Northwestern Florida is Wireless Partners' first location to receive a high-speed broadband solution, responding to incumbent telcos’ plans to decommission copper-based DSL. In partnership with EarthLink, Wireless Partners has launched wireless broadband services in areas that previously had only access to slow DSL service. Leveraging Tarana's next-generation fixed wireless access (ngFWA) technology, this collaboration enhances EarthLink's service offerings by delivering a transformative broadband solution that improves economics and performance in both mainstream and underserved markets. The primary objective of this partnership is to offer EarthLink's subscribers currently utilizing DSL connections a high-speed broadband upgrade. Presently, EarthLink uses fiber, DSL, and FWA to deliver ISP services to its subscribers nationwide.

GoNetspeed makes $110M bet on the New Jersey broadband market
GoNetspeed has announced a $110 million privately funded investment that will deliver fiber internet to six initial New Jersey communities, including Carteret, Northfield, Old Bridge, Parlin, South River, and Ventnor. GoNetspeed’s move into these New Jersey communities marks a significant milestone in its growth, expanding the company’s footprint to its eleventh state. Construction in New Jersey is scheduled to begin in 2026, with the first customers expected to be connected by fall.

Kinetic kicks off $2M fiber expansion build in Shepherdsville, KY
Kinetic recently announced a $2 million strategic fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) expansion project in Shepherdsville, aimed at bringing broadband to 3,800 households across the Pitts Point, Sampson, Hillbrook and Meadowbrook neighborhoods, among many others. By the end of construction, residents in Shepherdsville (Bullitt County) will have access to 52 miles of fiber internet.

PRIME FiBER breaks ground in Sun City, Arizona
PRIME FiBER, an open-access fiber infrastructure provider, has begun construction on its fiber network in Sun City, Arizona. The build, part of PRIME FiBER's wholesale fiber broadband services agreement with AT&T, follows a ceremonial groundbreaking held on June 18 and marks a key milestone in PRIME FiBER's expansion in Arizona. It also represents the second U.S. state where PRIME FİBER is actively building open-access infrastructure, following its deployments in Florida. PRIME said its collaboration with AT&T in Sun City will bring it one step closer to its goal of reaching 60 million fiber locations in the U.S. by the end of 2030. The Sun City project is part of a broader deployment by PRIME FiBER to deliver high-speed fiber internet across the metroplex, including Peoria and the City of Phoenix. The first service areas in Sun City are expected to go live in the coming months.

Tillman Fiber goes live in three new Florida markets
Tillman Fiber has launched its fiber internet network in three new Florida cities: Northport, Kissimmee and Deltona, as well as Hernando County. Residents can now connect to gigabit-speed internet, gaining access to symmetrical fiber internet. Tillman Fiber’s initial network deployment represents a significant milestone as part of its ambitious, billion-dollar expansion strategy to provide residential fiber internet access across Florida, building on its existing presence as a trusted service provider in St. Petersburg and Lakeland. T-Mobile Fiber, powered by Tillman Fiber’s gigabit network in these areas, is now available with three plans delivering ultra-fast symmetrical speeds — 500 Mbps, 1 Gbps, or 2 Gbps — starting at just $60/month for 500 Mbps with AutoPay and a T-Mobile voice line. Tillman successfully connected its first customers in these markets and aims to make its fiber network available to 100,000 homes across Florida in this phase of development. Building on its West Coast presence, Tillman Fiber is poised to expand to Florida’s East Coast, with near-term expansions planned for Palm Beach County and the City of Sunrise.

Vero Fiber brings fiber broadband to Arcata, Calif.
Vero Fiber is poised to launch its fiber internet services throughout Arcata, California. Construction began in May and will be completed in phased rollouts, with initial customer activations planned for summer 2025. The fiber network provides symmetrical gigabit speeds. Vero Fiber is not a stranger to the community, having spearheaded educational and networking projects across Humboldt County, offering services to residents and businesses throughout Eureka. Vero also spearheaded the D299 Middle Mile Initiative, an effort to connect communities along the stretch from Arcata to Redding.