BrightRidge Broadband earns $6.86 million Tennessee Middle Mile grant to serve thousands of rural residents

Under the program, administered by the State of Tennessee Economic & Community Development’s Broadband Office, BrightRidge Broadband will provide a $2.86 million local match to serve 2,067 households whose under-served and unserved homes currently lack service.

“Our team worked side-by-side with Representative Rebecca Alexander, Representative Tim Hicks and Sen. Rusty Crowe as well as Mayor Joe Grandy to earn this grant, and we are deeply grateful for their support,” BrightRidge CEO Jeff Dykes said Tuesday. “This award vastly accelerates the ability of BrightRidge Broadband to extend service quickly to these unserved and underserved sections of our county.”

One of the major hurdles for state and federal funding authorities in the past has been getting accurate, ground-proven data to demonstrate actual rural service levels. BrightRidge Broadband successfully challenged the state’s original position that Washington County did not have unserved areas.

“Our legislative delegation from Washington County worked very, very hard on this effort,” Rep. Alexander said. “Tim, Rusty and I hear daily from our constituents on the impact of having no broadband or very poor service. It impacts our people’s ability to seek employment or complete their work duties, it impacts our children’s ability to complete study assignments, and limits access to vital medical and governmental services. With that in mind, we thank BrightRidge Broadband for doing all it possibly can to serve as many of our residents as quickly as possible.”

With state focused efforts underway, Washington County Mayor Joe Grandy and the Washington County Commission worked to reinforce the effort by passing a Broadband Ready Community designation for the County, a key point in grant scoring. “Like our legislators, we hear daily from citizens who remain in need of basic essential infrastructure,” Grandy said. “Whether it’s clean water or a clean high-speed broadband connection, these are essential components of a community empowered to succeed.” Under the grant award, contracts with the state are to be finalized this summer with all work to be completed by December 31, 2026. The work program includes construction of 235 miles of new fiber optic line and associated fiber optic drops to 2067 households.

Once completed, BrightRidge Broadband will have served about 70 percent of its electric service area in 7 years, well ahead of business plan projections.
“We were blessed with a clean sheet of paper when designing the BrightRidge Broadband network,” BrightRidge Broadband Officer Stacy Evans said. “Since we were able to start from scratch, we built a truly nation-leading service backed by multiple connections to Internet peering locations.

“With that backbone in place, we can offer up to residential 10 Gb symmetrical connections at affordable rates without residential contracts or service limitations. Today’s award sets BrightRidge apart as we expand even further into the hardest to serve portions of the County well ahead of schedule.”

The grant award comes as BrightRidge Broadband completes $23.4 million in construction approved by the BrightRidge Board of Directors last year to bring service to more than two dozen neighborhoods in Piney Flats, Gray, Johnson City, and Jonesborough served by underground utilities while also extending service to Colonial Heights, along Cherokee Road, the south-eastern side of Johnson City, and later this summer in areas south of the Town of Jonesborough.

As this work is completed and state documents are finalized, work will begin on the grant program. Citizens who want to learn more about BrightRidge Broadband availability in their area can visit MyBrightRidge.com or call Customer Service at 423-952-5000.