cfx_september-2024 - 10

GLO FIBER
Shentel Makes Transformation Look Easy
By Sara Winegardner
Glo Fiber passings grew by 86,400 in 2023.
Shentel employees had more
than 252 volunteer hours
as part of the company's
2023 Volunteer Initiative.
They also donated $19,000
to local charities throughout
Virginia, West Virginia,
Maryland and Pennsylvania
through Shentel's " The Big
Give " holiday initiative.
Glo Fiber is targeting a total
of 600,000 passings by the
close of 2026, and 55% of
Shentel's total broadband
passings are now tied to
the Glo Fiber product.
Glo Fiber serves approximately
40 school systems through
the federal E-Rate program
and is dedicated to continuing
that community work.
The first employees of what would become
Shentel could hardly imagine the products that
would be offered by what was once Farmers
Mutual Telephone System. Founded in 1902, its
goal was a simple, but challenging one: to deliver
telephone service to the rural homes that
still lacked access.
More than 100 years later, the mission behind
the products is not so different, even as
the company has undergone more than a few
evolutions. There were the days when Shentel
was predominately a wireless company, serving
as a Sprint affiliate from 1995-2021 and
touting more than one million mobile subscribers.
It shifted into a cable company during that
time, offering video, phone and broadband.
And now, under Glo Fiber, the company is embracing
fiber as a tool to deliver future-proof
connectivity to the communities that have
long been left behind.
" We had this extensive middle mile fiber
network and we used that fiber network to
build out and to connect our cell sites to provide
backhaul service. We built that market to
connect our cable markets together, and then
we were using that for our commercial fiber
customers as well, " COO Ed McKay says. " We
looked at that, saw that we had the opportunity
to leverage that network, leverage our
expertise building and operating networks to
pursue this new greenfield, new fiber strategy
that we called Glo Fiber. "
Straightforward from the Start
The goal from the start has been to provide
these communities with the fastest speeds on
the most reliable network with fair, straightforward
pricing. Glo Fiber launched in its first
market, Harrisonburg, Virginia, in the fourth
quarter of 2019, and it has all been up from
there. A key to ensuring the new product's success,
however, was hiring the right team members
and elevating others. SVP, Engineering
and Operations Rick Mason was one of those
new additions, being hired in May 2019 as VP
and Head of Business Operations.
" It was a great opportunity to help the team
and start prep again and say 'OK, how are we
going to select these markets? How should we
operate them? How should we build them?' "
Mason says. " It was really neat to put together
a business case and a multi-year plan that,
frankly, we've been able to stick to from the
build side, which has been very helpful as
we've gone through the years. " One of the decisions
made in 2019 that he continues to be
proud of was embracing XGS-PON, calling the
technology a great foundation for the Glo Fiber
network now and long into the future.
A typical market touts approximately 10,000
homes passed and some of the larger markets
Glo Fiber has built to measure at about 50,000
homes passed. Shentel now passes more than
275,000 homes and businesses with the product,
with Glo Fiber an option in 25 different
markets across five states.
10
September 2024
CablefaxTopOps.com
FIBER PROVIDER OF THE YEAR
http://www.CablefaxTopOps.com
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