TDS plans to cover 60 percent of its footprint with fiber by 2026

TDS Telecom added 35,000 new fiber-enabled locations in the fourth quarter of 2021, bringing its total fiber-enabled addresses to 400,000 at year-end. That is up significantly from the 20,000 new fiber locations the company added in the third quarter. The company added 86,000 new fiber addresses in 2021, which is lower than its target of adding 150,000 new addresses in the year. However, TDS Telecom SVP and CFO Vicki Villacrez warned investors that the company would miss that target because of permitting problems and contractor delays. Villacrez said that TDS continues to struggle with supply chain problems, permitting issues and scheduling delays but nevertheless it is committed to expanding its fiber footprint as rapidly as possible. TDS grew service addresses 7 percent year-over-year from 1.302 million in fourth quarter of 2020 to 1.387 million in fourth quarter 2021.  In addition, the company is now offering 1-Gig services to 58 percent of its footprint. TDS management outlined aggressive goals for the next five years, including doubling its current broadband connections from 500,000 to 1 million and growing its broadband-enabled locations to 2.2 million by 2026 with approximately 60 percent of those locations being outfitted with fiber. The company had previously committed to reaching 929,000 service addresses with fiber “over the next several years” but this is the first time TDS has put a date to that goal. TDS management also said that they want to provide 1-Gig speeds to 80 percent of the company’s footprint by 2026.