Regional Roundup: Ripple Fiber, Lightpath, GCI, CTC, Omni Fiber

Four fiber infrastructure announcements of regional interest around the US:

Ripple Fiber is making a move on the state of Washington. They have plans to invest $250M to hook up 200K homes in parts of Grays Harbor County and King County. They’ll be starting out in Ocean Shores and Federal Way, with the first customers coming on in Q1 of 2026. Washington is Ripple’s 9th state. Ocean Shores has come up before here, as it is also the site of Toptana’s proposed cable landing station.

Lightpath has announced the expansion of its metro footprint in Columbus, Ohio. They are adding another 150 route miles of high density fiber aimed at connecting multiple new AI data center deployments around the region. Engineering and construction have begun, and the routes will come online between the end of next year and the start of 2027.

In Alaska, GCI has signed onto Cordova Telecom Cooperative’s plans for some new regional subsea fiber. CTC wants to build 560 route miles of cable from Juneau to Cordova, a project called Fiber Internet Serving Homes in Southeast Alaska, or “FISH in SEAK”. GCI will add $12M in private funding to the $35M federal USDA grant. If all goes well, the deployment will happen in 2027.

And Omni Fiber has raised $200M for its ongoing FTTx expansion. This week they closed on $150M in debt financing from Stonepeak Credit and Oak Hill Advistors, $50M in equity investment from Oak Hill Capital, and also on a $10M working capital facility with Republic Bank & Trust. Omni has customers in 60 communities in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Texas, with 25 more underway and others in the pipeline.

If you haven't already, please take our Reader Survey! Just 3 questions to help us better understand who is reading Telecom Ramblings so we can serve you better!

Categories: Fiber Networks · Financials · FTTH · Metro fiber