Gigapower fiber joint venture sets expansion into Minneapolis-St. Paul

Gigapower, the AT&T-BlackRock joint venture, has identified several towns in the southern Minneapolis-St. Paul area as expansion targets for a multi-gigabit fiber network that will be underpinned by an "open access" framework. Gigapower's expansion there will include Bloomington, Eden Prairie, Eagan, Savage, Apple Valley, Burnsville, Farmington, Lakeville, Rosemont and Shakopee. Those areas will join other markets that Gigapower has identified for a phase one network build that includes Las Vegas, three cities in Arizona, parts of northeastern Pennsylvania and areas of Alabama and Florida. The joint venture did not say when it will start building and launch services in the Minnesota expansion markets, but it launched a website that enables consumers to be alerted about future service availability. Gigapower is initially looking to build fiber to 1.5 million locations that fall outside AT&T's wireline footprint, though the joint venture has indicated it has an appetite to expand that number. Gigapower has also expressed interest in participating in the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program.