Charlotte-based Brightspeed has reached the one-year mark as an independent telecommunications company with exponential growth under its belt.
It celebrated its anniversary on Oct. 3 at its South End headquarters that it moved into at the beginning of this year. In October 2022, Brightspeed launched as a separate operation owned by Apollo Global Management. It gained its independence after it closed on a $7.5 billion deal to acquire network assets in 20 states from Lumen Technologies’ incumbent local exchange carrier, or ILEC, business.
Brightspeed has set big goals since then. The company is working to bring its internet services to more than 3 million homes and businesses across its 20-state footprint. That plan includes providing reliable internet service in more than 800,000 underserved homes in North Carolina over the next five years.
"We're still on target to pass the 3.2 million homes that we said we would do by year five," said Bob Mudge — Brightspeed's CEO, who will transition to executive chair of the company's board of directors on Nov. 1. "Tom (Maguire) and I always had a view that we could do that faster than those five years. We still will."
Mudge said North Carolina has been key for its growth. Over the last year, Brightspeed has hired more than 1,400 employees, with about 750 based in the state and roughly 200 of those in Charlotte. The company is also working with more than $100 million in North Carolina funding, which adds to its ability to build fiber across its footprint.
"That's a pretty dramatic economic impact," he said.
Brightspeed has recognized Charlotte as its anchor location. Mudge said the local region allows the company to be adjacent to key vendors, such as optical communications firm Corning. He also pointed out that the city is a magnet for talent.
Tom Maguire, Brightspeed's chief operating officer who will replace Mudge as CEO next month, said he believes the company executed a seamless deal close with Lumen. Since then, Brightspeed has reshaped its customer experience. The company has reduced answer times in its call center by 75%. It has also shrunk the time between a customer's call for repair and when the issue is resolved to under two days.
Mudge said Maguire's shift to chief executive is the result of a plan that had been laid out for quite some time. The company has communicated with Apollo that there will be transitions within its leadership. Manny Sampedro will replace Maguire as its new COO.
'I'll be able to balance a little bit of my professional time with a little bit more personal time as the executive chairman, but I'll still be very involved in our strategic alternatives," Mudge said.
Maguire said the executive shift provides three key advantages.
"It's refreshing the talent pool; it's ensuring continuity; and it's giving us the ability to execute on what has been a long standing plan," he said.
With one year of work behind Brightspeed, Mudge said its real job begins next year. That being to accelerate its fiber build plans, settle into its leadership transition and to continue to invest in its customers. The company has invested about $2 billion so far in its fiber development efforts.
"Considering we started from scratch, we think we're in pretty good shape with respect to how many households we've enabled with fiber since we began this effort," Maguire said. "And we're going to continue to get fast."
