Loveland Pulse, a municipal broadband network in Loveland, Colorado, has seen considerable success since turning up its first residential customer in June 2020, and the company will be expanding to neighboring communities, said Brieana Reed-Harmel, fiber manager for the company, in a recent interview with Telecompetitor.
“As we have continued to grow, we have been engaged by the county to move our boundary out to pick up areas” lacking high-speed service, Reed-Harmel explained.
Loveland Pulse was formed in 2018 by the city of Loveland and its local utility with the goal of getting high-speed broadband available community wide.
As Reed-Harmel explained, “The incumbents were picking and choosing the parts of the community they wanted to serve.”
It was particularly problematic for the school district, which was unable to do standardized testing for all students at the same time because of capacity constraints.
Loveland Pulse
The Loveland Pulse network was funded, in large part, through a municipal bond offering.
“It’s backed by ratepayers, not taxes,” said Reed-Harmel.
Loveland Pulse has been deploying GPON and XGS-PON and expects to have service available throughout Loveland this year.
The company offered symmetrical speeds up to 10 Gbps from the start, Reed-Harmel said.
Gigabit speed service, which sells for $74.95 a month, is the most popular. Customers also can get 3 Gbps service for $149.95 and 10 Gbps service for $199.95.
“We have quite a few takers” for 10 Gbps service, Reed-Harmel noted.
Some YouTube influencers moved to Loveland specifically to get the high speeds, she added.
Loveland Pulse has an overall market share of 32%, which includes areas where service was only recently launched. In markets where the company has been operational longer, it has a take rate in the 40s, she said.
The company has an unusually high net promoter score (NPS), according to a recent press release. Its NPS of 68.4 is 17 times higher than the national average, the release notes.
