C Spire's $500 million fiber buildout thrives on grassroots efforts

Regional US operator C Spire continues its fiber buildout in the South, having begun work in Hoover and Homewood, Alabama. The operator is investing $500 million of its own funding over a three-year period, its deployment driven by crowdsourcing and grassroots campaigns. Ben Moncrief, C Spire’s EVP for Alabama markets, said the company encourages people to visit its website, where they can input their addresses and let the company know where they want fiber deployed. He added C Spire “absolutely” places emphasis on local community feedback. “We want to build anywhere we’re wanted,” Moncrief said. “We look at those results weekly and generate something of a heat map to see where demand for fiber service is the greatest, and that’s how we prioritize where we’ll build.” Moncrief offered the example of Greenwood (MS) where fiber expansion happened primarily due to local efforts. In 2021, Greenwood’s city leadership approached C Spire about deploying fiber in the area. The city then sought feedback from residents to determine how much fiber interest there was on the local level. “After a six-month grassroots campaign led by local leaders [in Greenwood], it was clear that was the place where we could be successful,” said Moncrief. “And now we’re deploying and connecting customers there.”