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United Communications won a $7.98 million grant to extend a fiber-optic network across rural Tennessee
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Owned by not-for-profit electric cooperative Middle Tennessee Electric, United is aiming for universal broadband coverage
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The provider plans to connect over 11,000 unserved Tennessean homes and businesses in 2024
United Communications snagged a cool $7.98 million through Tennessee’s Middle Mile Buildout program. The local provider will use that money to lay down 267 miles of fiber to rural communities across 10 counties.
United applied for the grants in 2023 as part of Project UNITE, its initiative to invest in universal broadband coverage across Middle Tennessee through local partnerships and grant funding opportunities. The new award will cover approximately 70% of project costs, and United’s owner, not-for-profit electric cooperative Middle Tennessee Electric (MTE), will fund the rest.
The Middle Tennessee region covers 41 counties in the central part of the state.
William Bradford, CEO of United, told Fierce Network the newly funded projects have to be completed by the end of 2026, but United expects to finish before then.
Tennessee’s Middle Mile Buildout and Last Mile grant programs are part of its federal Capital Projects Fund (CPF). Between them, the two programs are dishing out $162.7 million.
Other Middle Mile awardees in Tennessee include Newport Utilities ($15.2 million), Ben Lomand Communications ($14.7 million), Aeneas Communications ($7.2 million), Gibson Connect ($7.1 million), BrightRidge ($6.7 million) and the West Kentucky Rural Telephone Cooperative Corporation ($6.6 million). Charter Communications was the big winner on the Last Mile front, bagging nearly $11.7 million in grants.
The National Telecommunication and Information Administration’s (NTIA) has its own Middle Mile Program, which has made 39 awards amounting to around $980 million since it was announced in summer 2023. However, industry leaders have warned that the federal program likely isn’t enough on its own.
For its part, United operates an approximately 2,000-mile middle mile network with points of presence (PoPs) in Nashville and Atlanta, providing connectivity to 10 counties in Middle Tennessee. That middle mile infrastructure is designed to support both backbone transport needs as well as network nodes and splice cases for local distribution in order to support building extensions to serve residents and businesses.
In 2023, United’s owner MTE invested $85 million to expand service to 77,000 co-op members in Murfreesboro. Bradford said that project is “well underway.” Last month, United celebrated a partnership with the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Murfreesboro Housing Authority to bring free internet to three new and/or revitalized communities in central Murfreesboro.
Some 3,000 homes can sign up for internet service now, with “many more locations slotted to become available over the next 12 months,” he added.
United has thus far brought fiber-internet to over 90,000 homes and businesses in Middle Tennessee. Over 20,000 of those locations were through its Project UNITE. Bradford said 2024 is a big year for the initiative, with over 11,000 unserved homes and businesses due to get service, primarily in Williamson, Maury, Giles and Bedford counties.
Looking ahead, United plans to pursue BEAD opportunities when they open up. Tennessee’s second and final BEAD proposal is currently awaiting approval from the NTIA, after which the state will be able to choose sub-grantees to start building with its $813.3 million BEAD allocation.
Last year, Bradford called BEAD “a big, important piece of the puzzle” in getting to those hardest to reach areas that remain unserved.
