Shentel says E-Rate, wireless backhaul are bolstering its dark fiber business

Shentel may not be the size of its larger incumbent local exchange carrier compatriots, but the service provider is being no less aggressive in pursuing dark fiber deals with school districts and wireless operators in its largely rural territory. What’s helping Shentel get the attention of wholesale and retail customers is a fiber network that currently consists of nearly 5,000 route miles of fiber throughout Virginia, West Virginia and parts of Maryland. Ed McKay, SVP of engineering and planning for Shentel, said that the fiber network is being used to satisfy external and internal needs. One of those needs is being able to backhaul traffic on its growing wireless network. The telecommunication company has built fiber to over 240 of its own cell sites and it has 60 more in construction. “We’re using it to not only go after fiber customers, but also to reduce our operational costs,” McKay said. “We’re interconnecting our cable networks and providing backhaul to our own cell sites.”