United Communications CEO Shares Grant-Winning Tips, “Outside-In” Build Strategy

United Communications CEO William Bradford purchased what was then United Telephone in 2011, a rural phone company founded more than 75 years ago to bring telephone service to unserved rural areas. His first order of business (after changing the name to United Communications) was to upgrade the organization’s infrastructure and start bringing internet services to its footprint of mostly rural customers. Today, United serves 70,000 middle-Tennessee homes with internet service and will reach a total of 80,000 homes by the end of 2023. More than 25,000 locations will be newly connected United broadband customers in 2023, with expansion funded by both revenues and grants. The United network includes more than 3,600 route miles of fiber covering portions of eight middle-Tennessee counties (Bedford, Davidson, Franklin, Marshall, Maury, Rutherford, Williamson, and Wilson). A small portion of United customers (less than 10%) in hard-to-reach areas are served by United’s fixed wireless assets. The conviction to serve the unserved has become the driver to expansion and growth for United. Bradford calls it the organization’s “outside-in strategy.” United identifies unserved areas, as well as neighboring communities that it can serve, to help make a business case for the overall deployment. Bradford explains that these connecting communities often are competitive, with multiple gigabit speed internet providers. United uses customer service, not price, as a differentiator. United looks for enthusiasm from communities in which it plans to build, served or unserved. Community outreach meetings are held to gauge support before expansion.