A year ago, Accelecom CEO David Flessas said, "...if we’re not growing exponentially a year from now, we didn’t do it right."
They must have got it right.
After all, the Louisville company created to manage commercial access to KentuckyWired's statewide fiber network is looking to invest $100 million over the next year to support the growth of the network.
Accelecom has brought on "several hundred" new customers in the last 12 months, such as Carhart and Rajant Corp., Flessas shared in an interview on Friday. The company has also scaled to 40 employees and is constructing roughly 140 miles of new fiber to those customers with about 150 projects in process.
The $350 million KentuckyWired project wrapped up last year, establishing 3,000 miles of high-capacity fiber-optic cable that extends through the commonwealth’s 120 counties. It's Accelcom's role to connect businesses and other organizations to that network, and it's done so in 80 of the 120 counties thus far.
"We are delivering the promise of the KentuckyWired Network... this concept of a statewide, ubiquitous broadband network that helps to eliminate the digital divide," Flessas said. "In education, literacy and telehealth, — and all those aspirational goals that were identified by KentuckyWired — that's being delivered on by Accelecom right now."
Accelecom has invested $50 million in the network in the last year, Flessas said, and he anticipates that the company will invest multiples of that over the next few years as it continues to bring on new customers and builds more miles of fiber.
Flessas highlighted the success the company has had in Eastern Kentucky, specifically within the health care sector. It's developed partnerships with The Center for Rural Development (CRD), Shaping Our Appalachian Region (SOAR), and the Kentucky Primary Care Association (KPCA) and brought rural Kentucky health departments like St. Claire Healthcare, Lake Cumberland District Health Department, and Pike County Health Department onto the network, in collaboration with CRD.
The company is also working with local and national internet service providers like Windstream, MetroNet, Eastern Kentucky Network and Bluegrass Network to get the high-speed internet offering to Kentucky residents as it continues to expand into communities.
"Kentucky going from a broadband backwater to one of the nationwide leaders in broadband connectivity is, in fact, happening," Flessas said. "We're excited to be at the forefront of that."
Speaking of leading the nation, as I previously reported, Accelecom's network is capable of offering Terabit Ethernet service. Unlike most fiber-optic networks, which typically reach up to one Gigabit per second, Terabit service offers transport speeds of hundreds of Gigabits per second.
Flessas said there hasn't been demand from businesses for those kinds of speeds yet, but the company is ready to provide it if and when they need it.
"Accelecom is not only facilitating the success of existing businesses, but it will facilitate new services and businesses with Terabit Ethernet," he said. "Robust broadband infrastructure, which is key to the state's success, is coming to life."
