Broadband Communities Magazine

The first customers in Spring Garden Township (PA) a rural community in York County, are now enjoying access to 100 percent fiber-optic broadband thanks to efforts from Glo Fiber and Shentel. As construction on the network continues, Glo Fiber said residents and businesses will receive advanced notice via mail of their pending internet access options, according to a recent announcement from the company.

Each year, Grace Hill partners with the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) to conduct a Renter Preferences Survey. Here are some of the highlights:

The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare the fact that millions of people, especially in rural America, do not have access to broadband. In response, more than $150 billion of federal and state funding will be spent over the next five years to close the digital divide. However, a new digital divide centered around latency—the delay before a data transfer begins, exemplified by video stuttering—could emerge if rural communities lack the broadband infrastructure to provide low-latency services.

June 2023 marks four years since the completion of backbone construction and lighting of all phases of the Westminster Fiber Network (WFN) project in Westminster, Maryland. Another milestone will soon be achieved: Subscriber growth will begin generating sufficient revenue for the city to cover the debt service on the general obligation bonds sold to finance the project.

Covington Town Center, a $350 million development in Covington, east of Atlanta (GA), is the latest example of The Foxfield Company's (areal estate development firm) focus when it considers building a new master-planned community. Harry Kitchen, Jr., president of The Foxfield Company, has a philosophy to attract partners that offer premier amenities for residents and businesses. “We [try] to put in the horizontal infrastructure that provides the best-in-class broadband, fiber, and other technology as well as landscaping, walking trails, and connectivity.” After careful consideration, Foxfie

Sterling Ranch, a master-planned community in Douglas County (CO), has made fiber-based broadband the centerpiece amenity of its community. It is achieving its broadband goals through a partnership with Lumen Technologies and Lumiere Fiber, a network integrator. By expanding its relationship with Lumen, Sterling Ranch, the first all-gigabit community in Colorado, will offer its residents 8 Gbps symmetrical fiber-based internet services.

Georgia’s Clayton County, a growing community that includes Hartsfield Airport, has been ignored by large providers that have not upgraded their broadband facilities to support higher speeds necessary for remote work and learning. This leaves many residents, many of whom are low- or middle-income, with slow-speed DSL or cable connections. The lack of broadband facilities is just one problem for the county.

Years of working on deployments with varying geographic issues and operational challenges have imparted valuable lessons about timely project execution despite uncontrollable variables. Here are seven best practices and the stories behind them: