I was just up in Oregon last month and was talking with some people there - there are quite a few fiber builds in small areas that are under construction. Pioneer Telephone Co-Op is building out Benton, Lane, Lincoln and Polk Counties.

The company I work for is building out massive swaths of the Southwest including some super small places (pop ~300 in one “town”) that are miles from anywhere. It just takes time. I know my projects have compelteion dates between 1 to 5 years, depending on the town.

What town do you live in?

You might be surprised. I’m overseeing build outs in multiple rural areas - and very few people in those communities know what’s coming. I just ran across a local government study about broadband availability in those areas completed under a year ago and it said those areas were likely not going to be served. We complete construction Q3 2023 in those areas.

I’m involved in inspecting multiple rural builds from the current awards. Some of the places are so rural I question why hundreds of millions of tax payer dollars were awarded to build them out with GPON. Yes, I said hundreds of millions - as in over $300 million to build out fiber to serve around 24,000 in 15 communities.

Neither of those two places will receive funding because they don’t qualify. Both Booneville, NY and Sulphur Springs, TX both have gig-speed internet available.