U.S. regional carrier Shenandoah Telecommunications (Shentel) is looking for some new beachheads as it works to expand its fiber network, but carrier representatives say there is no interest in island hopping. Instead, they said they plan to focus on building a continuous network, citing reliability and operational advantages.
Shentel last month announced plans to expand its network coverage into Delaware. It is initially targeting more than 21,000 locations in Sussex County, with ongoing engineering and construction expected to take place in early 2023. The move is designed to secure a strategic foothold in a region where it sees "significant potential opportunities" as its Glo Fiber service will cover 450,000 locations by 2026.
Shentel's push east is noteworthy given that it has focused its expansion efforts primarily on the states where it already operates. While Delaware is new territory for Shentel, it is adjacent to its existing footprint in Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky."
Stuart French, Shentel's government and community affairs specialist, said the ability to equip its own routes makes maintenance coordination easier, meaning it doesn't have to rely on third-party middle mile providers to connect the different islands.
As Shentel evaluates its expansion goals, it is focusing on higher-density Tier 3 and Tier 4 markets, rather than large cities.
This includes places like Hanover County, Virginia, which is located just outside the state capital of Richmond but has more rural and agricultural roots. While the county has benefited from Richmond's explosive growth, the telecommunications infrastructure there is somewhat outdated. That makes it a perfect target for a carrier like Shentel.
While it focuses on smaller communities, there are no hard and fast limits to the build-out scale it wants to pursue. Its existing fiber franchise agreements range from 351 locations on the low end to more than 20,000 on the high end.
It plans to fund its own core buildout, and Shentel is also looking to layer grant programs to flesh out its coverage in lower density areas. It already plans to cover about 30,000 sites with grants, but Kyle said that number could increase, noting that a new grant cycle will begin in August in Virginia, with additional cycles underway in Maryland and West Virginia.
