Coos-Curry Electric Co-op Completes Biggest Fiber Expansion In Co-op History
Oregon’s Coos-Curry Electric Cooperative (CCEC) and its subsidiary Beacon Broadband (BBI) say they have completed the biggest fiber expansion project in the cooperative’s history, dramatically expanding affordable Internet access to thousands of previously unserved rural households in the Southern part of The Beaver State.
Cooperative officials say the six-year, $60 million project was the largest infrastructure investment in the cooperative's 88-year history. 7,000 of the co-op’s 14,000 electrical customers are now subscribed to broadband service after the deployment of 14,000 miles of fiber optic lines that have also streamlined maintenance and monitoring of the electrical grid.
Originally, a CCEC engineering feasibility study estimated the build would cost $45 million, though CCEC’s board later revised the capital budget to $60 million to reflect steeper construction costs due to the rugged, rural coastal terrain.
To fund the project, the CCEC Board authorized BBI to secure up to $60 million in private borrowing through CoBank.
It was supplemented by several state and federal grants, including a 2020 $14.1 million Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) grant, a $19 million grant from the Oregon Broadband Deployment Program (BDP) to expand high-speed Internet access to over 1,200 addresses in rural Curry and Coos counties, and a $7 million USDA Rural Development grant.