LS Networks to Build Rural Gigabit Networks in Pacific Northwest

LS Networks will deploy a high-density fiber-optic broadband network in 25 rural communities in Oregon and Washington over the next two years.

The program will offer simple broadband plans at 100 Mbps ($40 per month) or 1 Gbps speed costing $70 a month.

The $1.2 million “Connected Communities” project launched in Maupin, Oregon, in July, and the first services will begin in January 2017.

LS Networks is a competitive local exchange carrier that will leverage the backbone and access facilities it has built for business customers to be used for consumer Internet access. LS Networks has built more than 7,500 route miles of high-capacity fiber broadband in Oregon.

That approach might illustrate a continuing reality of the rural Internet access business, namely that it is difficult to supply high-quality services in isolated areas without revenues generated some other way.

Historically, service providers have used profits from business customer segments to support networks serving consumers; and profits from urban customers to support services for rural customers. LS Networks will use profits generated by its CLEC operations to build the rural consumer Internet access networks.