10-16-2026 9:43pm

Spectrum Announces It Has Completed A Rural Broadband Expansion

Beth Callahan Editor

Photo via Pexels.com

LEBANON, OH — As technology has become woven into nearly every part of everyday life, dependable internet service has increasingly become less of a convenience and more of a basic utility — much like electricity.

For some Warren County residents, particularly those living in more rural areas, getting reliable high-speed internet has not always been easy.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought the issue into even sharper focus as students attended classes from home, employees worked remotely and families increasingly relied on internet connections for health care, shopping, government services and everyday communication.

Since then, both Spectrum and altafiber have undertaken major broadband expansion projects in Warren County, with each company reporting thousands of additional homes and businesses now within reach of high-speed service.

Spectrum announced Friday, Oct. 16, that it has completed a rural broadband expansion making its fiber network available to more than 7,300 additional homes and businesses in Warren County. The Warren County expansion is part of a larger multi-year initiative by Spectrum that includes federal Rural Digital Opportunity Fund projects as well as billions of dollars in private investment.

“Spectrum is bringing gigabit broadband to rural communities in Ohio and across America,” Josh Moore, area vice president for Spectrum’s Midwest South Management Area, said in the company’s announcement.

Spectrum said the newly built fiber network can provide internet speeds of up to 2 gigabits.

The expansion appears to include portions of rural Warren County that historically lacked adequate broadband service.

Federal Communications Commission records show Spectrum’s Ohio operation received Rural Digital Opportunity Fund support for 1,128 Warren County locations. The federally supported areas include census areas covering portions of rural Warren County, including areas associated with Harlan, Massie, Washington and Wayne townships.

The 1,128 federally supported locations represent only a portion of Spectrum’s newly announced 7,300-location Warren County expansion, suggesting additional construction was undertaken beyond the specific locations supported through the federal program.

Spectrum’s expansion comes as Warren County continues working through another major effort to improve broadband availability.

In March 2023, Warren County commissioners entered into an agreement with altafiber aimed at eventually bringing fiber-based broadband access to approximately 53,000 homes and businesses throughout the county.

County planning documents specifically identified unserved and underserved communities in eastern Warren County as an area of concern and said those locations would be given priority as the network expanded.

Altafiber now reports that its Warren County construction has brought fiber to more than 20,000 homes and businesses since construction began in 2023.

The company's Warren County expansion initially involved both private investment and approximately $4.8 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funding committed by Warren County.

However, the county and altafiber mutually terminated the county-supported portion of the agreement in September after the project encountered delays attributed to third parties. Altafiber agreed to make service available to an additional 338 homes before the county made a final payment.

Altafiber told public radio in August that it had already invested approximately $50 million of its own money in Warren County and intended to continue expanding the network despite the end of the county funding agreement.

That means the end of Warren County’s financial participation did not mean an end to altafiber’s Warren County construction.

The two companies are competitors and generally operate separate fiber networks. If Spectrum installs fiber along a rural road, for example, altafiber does not automatically have the right to use Spectrum’s fiber to serve customers along that road, and the same applies in reverse.

As a result, the expansions by Spectrum and altafiber should not simply be added together to determine how many Warren County properties now have fiber access. Some areas may be served by both companies, while other rural residents may have only one fiber provider available.

Still, the two expansion efforts represent substantial investment in a problem Warren County officials have been trying to address for years.

Spectrum’s newly completed project adds another 7,300 homes and businesses to its Warren County service area, while altafiber reports its ongoing construction has reached more than 20,000 addresses.

For rural residents who have spent years dealing with slow connections — or in some cases no practical high-speed option at all — the larger question now may be not whether broadband is expanding, but which parts of Warren County remain without reliable high-speed service and how long it will take to reach them.