Building Broadband: C Spire Fiber Expanding in Tylertown; Ezee Fiber launches fiber expansion into Milton, Lakewood and Fife, Washington

CentraCom's Gunnison Telephone Company acquisition enhances its Utah fiber and broadband footprint
CentraCom, a subsidiary of LICT, is acquiring Gunnison, Utah-based Gunnison Telephone Company in a move to deepen its Utah market presence. After meeting required regulatory approvals, the deal is expected to close in December 2025. Founded over a century ago, Gunnison Telephone Company serves the communities of Gunnison, Centerfield, Mayfield, Fayette, and the unincorporated areas of Sanpete County, Utah - a total of approximately 6,700 residents in 1,576 households. Gunnison offers telephone, fiber-based broadband, and fixed wireless services, with its service area directly adjacent to CentraCom's existing operations. The acquisition will extend CentraCom's statewide fiber and broadband footprint into Gunnison and surrounding rural communities. LICT, a holding company with subsidiaries in broadband and other telecommunications services, is expanding its market coverage areas through an aggressive network expansion program and continually evaluating non-organic growth opportunities through mergers and acquisitions.

C Spire Fiber's Tylertown build targets 1,000 homes
C Spire is expanding its fiber internet service to over 1,000 additional homes across four fiberhoods in Tylertown, Mississippi. Construction in the fiberhoods is expected to be completed within the next three months. This spring, C Spire began engineering and fiber construction in other areas of Tylertown, Liberty, and Gloster, as well as expanding its fiber network in McComb and Summit. Additionally, C Spire rolled out 5G Home Internet in Pike, Walthall, and Amite Counties, which is backed by C Spire's nationwide 5G wireless network.

Ezee Fiber extends fiber reach to three new Washington State locations
Ezee Fiber, in partnership with the cities of Milton, Lakewood, and Fife, Washington, will start construction in September in the public right-of-ways to expand the availability of fiber internet services. Ezee Fiber is now constructing the infrastructure to make its network available to thousands of homes and businesses in the Milton, Lakewood, and Fife areas, which will include multi-gig broadband speeds for residential and business customers. With construction expected to continue until 2026, Ezee Fiber is committed to ensuring that homes and businesses will have the foundational next-generation network in place as soon as practical. Ezee Fiber recently announced its plans to invest $400 million in expanding its network in the Puget Sound region and hiring 350 people for sales, customer service, technician and other roles.

Gigapower expands broadband fiber network across six states
Gigapower has completed a significant expansion of its footprint and is now offering select communities greater access to its multi-gigabit platform. Over the past two years, Gigapower has connected dozens of municipalities to high-speed broadband across six states. The service provider's open access network is now available in the following areas:

• Florida - Greater Orlando and Panhandle Area
• New Mexico - Albuquerque
• Northeastern Pennsylvania - Northeastern Area
• North Carolina - Greater Charlotte Area
• South Carolina - Greater Charlotte Area
• Southeastern Minnesota - Southern Minneapolis

Gigapower has set a plan to reach 1.5 million fiber locations nationwide. The company will continue to collaborate with ISPs to provide reliable internet access to individuals nationwide.

GCI taps Harmonic for DOCSIS 4.0 rollout
GCI has employed Harmonic to help it modernize its DOCSIS network and expand the availability of broadband services across the state. Harmonic's cOS™ virtualized broadband platform transforms GCI's existing infrastructure to deliver DOCSIS 4.0 services with faster speeds, greater reliability and enhanced scalability to GCI customers across Alaska. Harmonic is fast-tracking GCI's DOCSIS 4.0 services with a turnkey solution spanning every stage of deployment — from high-level to low-level design and outside plant construction. This network deployment includes critical enhancements to cables and passive components, as well as the installation of new 1.8 GHz amplifiers. 

GoNetspeed makes Stratford, Connecticut, its next fiber broadband stop
GoNetspeed has named the Town of Stratford as the next town that will get access to its fiber internet service. The company's privately funded $7 million build in Stratford will equip more than 12,400 residents and businesses with speeds of up to 2 Gbps. Construction on GoNetspeed's fiber-optic network in Stratford is scheduled to begin in fall 2025, with the first residents and businesses expected to be connected shortly after construction commences. Stratford joins Ansonia, Bridgeport, Danbury, East Haven, New Haven, Hartford, and more than 40 additional communities in gaining access to GoNetspeed's service.

IIG activates multi-conduit fiber system between East Wenatchee and Quincy, WA
IIG recently activated a new multi-conduit fiber optic system between East Wenatchee and Quincy, Washington. This high-capacity route strengthens connectivity in one of Washington's most dynamic corridors – known not just for breathtaking Columbia River views and orchards, but also for being home to a rapidly growing cluster of data centers and cloud infrastructure. The new fiber build supports the region's digital future with greater bandwidth, diversity, and reliability for its service providers, public, and private partners and customers. Local technicians and field staff are located along the route, providing near real-time responses to maximize uptime on this vital data corridor.

Metronet deepens Minneapolis fiber footprint with US Internet acquisition
Metronet has acquired US Internet, deepening its fiber footprint in the Minneapolis area. This acquisition comes shortly after a joint venture between T-Mobile and KKR acquired Metronet. Terms of the deal are not being disclosed. Headquartered in Minnetonka, Minn., USI operates a fiber network that offers internet service with symmetrical speeds up to 10 Gbps. The USI network is accessible by more than 140,000 homes and businesses in and around Minneapolis. The USI acquisition will extend Metronet's reach in Minnesota, where the company already serves the nearby communities of Lakeville, Waconia, and Shakopee, as well as cities farther south like Owatonna, Faribault, and Rochester. Under the terms of its recently closed acquisition by the T-Mobile-KKR joint venture, Metronet's residential customers are transitioning to T-Mobile Fiber, which will lead to changes in sales, marketing, and the customer experience. USI's residential customers will be part of that transition, becoming T-Mobile Fiber customers in the coming months. USI's commercial customers will become Metronet commercial customers.

New York's ConnectALL awards $52.6M in broadband infrastructure grants
A new set of ConnectALL grants have been awarded to enable the build out of 234 miles of fiber and 46 wireless hubs to serve over 24,000 households with affordable broadband in 28 counties across New York State. In Total, these programs have awarded over $308 million to connect over 142,500 households, including 32,117 affordable homes with affordable Internet. New York Governor Kathy Hochul recently announced 15 broadband infrastructure awards totaling $52.6 million through the Municipal Infrastructure Program (MIP), Affordable Housing Connectivity Program (AHCP), and Deployment Program County Partnerships. These awards will directly connect 6,900 locations across the state, including 24,000 total households, businesses, and anchor institutions, with 19,000 of those being affordable housing units. Additionally, they will build 234 miles of new fiber infrastructure and establish 46 new wireless hubs.

Spectrum brings gigabit broadband to underserved Clay County, Texas
Spectrum launched its Internet, mobile, TV, andvoice services to more than 330 additional rural homes and small businesses in Clay County, Texas, including Henrietta and Petrolia. The cable MSO's multi-year rural construction initiative is driven by more than $7 billion in private investment from the company. It will ultimately add over 100,000 miles of fiber network infrastructure, delivering symmetrical and multi-gigabit speed internet access to more than 1.7 million new locations across the country. In 2024, Charter expanded its network to reach an additional 77,000 homes and small businesses, including 15,000 new locations made accessible through its rural construction initiative.

Syntrio expands fiber network to over 6K Wichita Falls locations
Syntrio, a provider of fiber internet services across Texas and Oklahoma, is expanding its presence in Wichita Falls with more than 6,000 homes and businesses now able to access its fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) network. This continued investment in Wichita Falls includes the opening of Syntrio's new local office, located at 918 Lamar Street, which will serve as a point of contact for customer support, service coordination, and community engagement. Syntrio's fiber network now delivers high-speed Internet to homes and businesses in and around Sheppard Air Force Base, Memorial Stadium, Lake Wellington, and nearby communities, including City View and Lakeside City. Ongoing construction is actively expanding coverage to additional areas across the city. The company's all-fiber infrastructure delivers 2.5 Gbps for residential users; enterprise-grade speeds for businesses are also available.