Consolidated Communications has completed the first 5,000 passings in its gigabit network upgrades in Brattleboro and Montpelier, Vermont. The Consolidated gigabit upgrades are part of the company’s five-year plans for the state.
This year, Consolidated Communications plans to upgrade 50,000 passings to symmetrical gigabit fiber. In all, the company aims to bring FTTP service more than 200,000 passings by 2026.
“These builds demonstrate Consolidated’s commitment to bringing the best Internet experience to our Vermont customers,” Rob Koester, Consolidated’s senior vice president of consumer product management, said in a press release about the Consolidated gigabit Vermont deployment. “This fiber expansion is just the start of our aggressive five-year build plan. We are continuing to make significant investments in our network throughout the Green Mountain State.”
Consolidated also is active in New Hampshire, California, Maine, Minnesota, Illinois and Texas. Last year, the company said it would upgrade 1.6 million locations across its 23-state footprint. The projects, which will provide multi-gigabit symmetrical services, include more than 1 million locations in northern New England.
Consolidated has been open to creative ways to bring broadband to Vermont. Last October, The Vermont Department of Public Safety announced that Wireless Partners had received a $762,000 grant to connect 668 locations in the Northern Kingdom area to 5G and broadband.
The announcement said that the network will provide fixed wireless through Consolidated Communications’ Trailrunner Wireless broadband service. The plan is to offer unlimited data and 25 Mbps downloads and 3 Mbps uploads, which meet the current FCC definition of broadband.
There also is a video element to Consolidated gigabit and FTTP offerings. In late 2019, the company introduced its CCiTV service throughout its northern New England footprint. The service was made available in parts of Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire. It already had been available in southern Maine, the Lakes Region and central and southern New Hampshire.
Consolidated Communications, which traces its roots back 125 years, has a network of 46,600 fiber route miles across its footprint..
