Illinois-based i3 Broadband, a neighbourhood provider of fibre optic Internet services, announced it is to commence network construction in multiple neighbourhoods as it continues its multi-year, multi-million dollar investment to extend the fibre network throughout Champaign-Urbana, Illinois.
i3 Broadband is deploying FTTH infrastructure to deliver its gigabit broadband, video and voice services. The company noted that to support its latest fibre network expansion it plans to hire local technicians and other staff later in the year.
i3 Broadband is the new local commercial partner that is working with the UC2B not-for-profit board to extend fibre connectivity to homes and businesses. The current network expansion will extend the initial UC2B fibre backbone build-out carried out in 2010-13 that was supported by $26 million in federal and state grants and in-kind contributions from the cities of Champaign and Urbana and the University of Illinois.i3 Broadband is continuing its partnership with UC2B to plan neighbourhood build-outs and to support a community benefit fund that will help address technology adoption barriers for disadvantaged community groups in the area.
In November 2016, CountryWide Broadband (CWB) announced that iTV-3, a company wholly-owned by CWB and Seaport Capital of New York, had acquired the assets of ITV-3, which provided FTTP-based services to communities in and around
Peoria, Illinois. Following the transaction iTV-3 was to operate as i3 Broadband.
The companies noted that CWB had continued the expansion of iTV-3 prior to completing the acquisition, having worked with ITV-3 to extend its network into 10 new neighbourhoods in the Peoria market. At the time iTV-3/i3 stated it planned to continue the expansion of the system, both in terms of customers and through the construction of new fibre infrastructure in the greater Peoria area.
- CWB, headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, is a broadband acquisition and management firm headed by a management team with broad expertise in the fibre, cable and telephone industries. The company has a strategy of acquiring, consolidating and expanding broadband properties in markets throughout the U.S.
