Cablefax The Magazine August 2023 - 21

PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNER AWARD
Better
Together
Provider altafiber Teams Up with Governments,
Co-Ops to Bring Broadband to All
By Amy Maclean
Since 2020,
altafiber has developed a
growing stable of public and private partnerships
to expand high-speed internet
across the Greater Cincinnati and Northern
Kentucky region. By the end of July, it
had 12 such partnerships in place and it
expects plenty more in the future.
Its first fiber partnership was with Butler
Rural Electric Cooperative, which approached
altafiber about extending fiber
to its sub-stations and switch locations
for a " smart grid " initiative it was working
on. Eventually, altafiber reached a partnership
agreement with BREC in February
2020 to extend high-speed broadband to
approximately 2,100 of its unserved members.
The fiber build to the initial 2,100
members was completed in 2021, and was
deemed a success in terms of subscriber
penetration.
That wasn't the end of the story, though.
In 2022, altafiber announced a commitment
to extend high-speed broadband
without any additional funding from BREC
to all remaining members. Construction
began earlier this year, and altafiber expects
to have all 10,000 BREC members
served by the first half of 2024.
" The common theme with all of the
cooperatives [we've talked to] has been...
the high standards they hold themselves
to with their members, and the quality of
service they receive today with electric,
and the requirement to have those same
standards with any partnership around
broadband, " says Greg Wheeler, altafiber's
President of Business Markets.
Most of altafiber's partnerships are with
local governments. Just last month the
City of Dublin, Ohio, selected it following
a Request for Proposal process to provide
competitive access to internet service of
10 gigabits for residents. The company will
be investing roughly $35 million in this fiber
optic network and will provide addiCablefaxTopOps.com
Altafiber
has entered into public-private partnerships that will extend high-speed
broadband to over 240,000 locations.
tional tech infrastructure, which could be
used to fund a City Innovation Center or
public WiFi initiatives.
Competition in the RFP process continues
to increase as more federal funding
comes into play.
Initially,
altafiber
was usually only competing against the
incumbent cable provider and an occasional
fixed wireless company. But
now national providers focused in openaccess
fiber networks are in the mix. " We
are seeing six+ respondents in some of
our recent RFP responses, " says Wheeler.
But it's not just the competition in RFPs
that has changed. " Communities are looking
past the immediate issue of providing
high-speed broadband to residents and
are looking to also use the partnership
as an economic development tool for the
community, " explains Wheeler. " In recent
conversations we are finding ourselves
being asked to deploy XGS-PON to support
multi-gig product offerings, provide
support for Innovation Centers to develop
August 2023
technology and economic development
for the community, custom pricing plans
for the community and in one instance
to help support a county-led middle mile
project through long-term financial commitments
to the project. "
Getting a partnership agreement done
these days may be a bit more complicated,
but altafiber is committed to finding
ones that make sense. " Some of our
original partnerships are coming close to
being completed, and some of the biggest
rewards have come from the support we
have received in the community and the
letters we receive from residents thanking
us for bringing them high-speed broadband, "
says Wheeler.
" Access to highspeed
broadband is taken for granted by
many of us, but when you hear the stories
of what school children and parents were
doing to get access to the internet, you
know at the end of the day you made a
difference and changed the fabric of the
community forever. "
TOP OPS 21
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Cablefax The Magazine August 2023

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