Charter Communications is partnering with the town of Erin, WI, on a $4.5 million public-private partnership that will bring Spectrum services to almost 1,500 homes and businesses.
Charter will contribute $4.2 million and Erin will add $300,000. The town’s contribution is from an American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) grant.
Charter says that it is making about $5 billion in investments related to the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction. The company won about $1 billion in the auction. About 140,000 customer locations in Wisconsin will receive service through the RDOF project. In all, Charter says that the FCC estimates that its RDOF-related activities will provide access to about 1 million locations in 24 states.
“Our partnership with the Town of Erin allows us to bring gigabit broadband and Spectrum services to more residential and small business customers residing in rural areas,” Paul Navin, Charter’s Spectrum Wisconsin Area Vice President, said in a press release. “Construction efforts are on track to be completed in September, allowing us to provide high-value broadband, mobile, TV and voice services to Town of Erin residents.”
Spectrum Internet offers download speeds as fast as 1 Gbps and Wi-Fi for both residential and small business customers. Both services start at 300 Mbps. Spectrum Business has 600 Mbps and 1 Gbps options.
In April, Spectrum said that it had started work on fiber network expansion projects that will bring services to 1,300 homes and small businesses in Winnebago and Fond du Lac in Wisconsin counties. The projects are related to the service provider’s RDOF auction awards in the state.
In May, Wisconsin announced broadband funding awards. Charter/Spectrum Mid-America was the second biggest winner with more than $2.4 million for a fiber broadband project that will reach 260,000 locations. The company will contribute funding of almost $3.7 million toward project costs.
