First Middle-Mile grant project ready to serve Fall Branch

CIUDAD DE JOHNSON — BrightRidge Broadband has placed the first of four new fiber network cabinets in service in Fall Branch, providing high-speed broadband under a Tennessee Middle-Mile Broadband grant project to serve 122 customers that lack broadband.

As the fiber network is completed to the remaining three Fall Branch cabinets over the next few months, the grant will bring service to 339 Fall Branch area customers in all.

The Fall Branch network is part of a $9.54 million total project funded by a grant contract with the State of Tennessee to serve 2,067 completely unserved rural Washington County and Greene County customers over the next two years. BrightRidge is funding the $2.68 million grant match.

In total, the grant will run fiber optic line along 235 miles of route. Given the low relative housing density, each “passing” of a potential service location will cost several thousand dollars in construction. This high cost, thousands more per passing than more urbanized areas, slows roll out to rural locations.

“We certainly wouldn’t be able to even consider serving these customers in the near term without the Tennessee broadband grant,” BrightRidge Broadband Chief Broadband Officer Stacy Evans said. “Now that we have the green light, we will move forward as quickly as possible to begin serving these folks who currently have no access to high-speed broadband.”

In all, the grant will provide access to nation-leading speeds up to 10 GB symmetrical in a swath of western Washington County and the northeast corner of Greene County, including rural Fall Branch, South Central, Sulphur Springs-Bowmantown-Leesburg and west to the Greene County line north of Highway 11E, portions of Lamar, Dry Creek and Conklin, areas south of Jonesborough and areas south of Gray. Grant areas will be constructed in this order.

“BrightRidge Broadband is only five years old now, and the community response at times has been nearly overwhelming,” BrightRidge CEO Jeff Dykes said. “We are pleased as a community-owned broadband company to provide first-class, local service and speeds you just can’t get elsewhere at pricing lower than most of the country. That’s why BrightRidge exists, to provide affordable, reliable and leading-edge services to our residents and businesses.”

 For BrightRidge customers in these grant areas, an online map is now live on the front page at  MyBrightRidge.com. Customers can check their address for eligibility and when construction is planned to start in their area.

“Certainly, in terms of miles covered this will be the largest project we have built,” Evans said. “We have just tons and tons of community support from these areas based on collected comments.”

BrightRidge also is applying for a federal BEAD grant to extend fiber internet to any remaining homes that lack access to broadband services inside the BrightRidge electric service area.

Electric customers who do not currently have access to 100Mb/20Mb broadband service at their home should email BrightRidge at ContactUs@BrightRidge.com with their name, address and acknowledgement of lack of service. As data is received, those locations can be included in our BEAD grant application.

Aside from grant projects, BrightRidge is in the process of extending BrightRidge Broadband’s unrivaled network to 6,000 additional homes and businesses by mid-2025 through non-grant investments in the community.

The Middle-Mile grant project is funded by American Rescue Plan, Capital Projects Fund under a Grant Contract with the State of Tennessee.