La Plata Electric Association announced the sale of FastTrack Communications Inc. to Clearnetworx LLC earlier this week.
The sale, announced on Tuesday, comes as part of a strategic partnership between both parties. Neither party disclosed the sale amount.
Clearnetworx is headquartered in Montrose and has provided broadband service across the Western Slope since 2012.
In 2023, Clearnetworx started full fiber-to-the-home build-outs in Durango, Bayfield and Cortez. One of these included the recent project on Florida Road in September, which sought to bring optional broadband internet access to 1,900 homes.
Clearnetworx has applied for over $30 million in state grant projects this fall for rural southwest Colorado as part of their commitment to the region.
“FastTrack and Clearnetworx have had a long relationship and great collaboration,” said Clearnetworx President Doug Seacat in a news release. “Our groups share a focus on local support and how fiber internet can create impact within the communities we live in. We’re excited to continue those efforts through this partnership as we bring fiber internet services to communities and rural areas across southwest Colorado.”
FastTrack offered broadband to services including schools, hospitals and government buildings to support the general welfare of the public.
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the lack of access to affordable, widespread broadband within LPEA’s service territory, and the power co-op took the opportunity to create broadband partnerships, the news release said.
“FastTrack's business model was to provide fiber middle mile and fiber to business and public institutions and was not intended to bring fiber to the home,” said LPEA Chief Executive Officer Jessica Matlock. “Membership in recent years has voiced its desire for FTTH, and therefore LPEA adopted a strategic broadband goal to advance our member's wishes and take advantage of the current environment whereby unprecedented large federal grant funds are available to facilitate as much FTTH as possible.”
She said both LPEA and FastTrack believe this sale provides the best possible use of FastTrack as an asset toward meeting LPEA’s strategic broadband goal.
LPEA’s board of directors have a broadband goal strategy to pursue funding and partnerships that will enable more broadband connections to its members by 2030 without increasing electric rates to do so, the news release said.
“LPEA, as a rural electric cooperative, is also well-positioned to apply for grants in partnership with broadband providers. These types of partnerships should ultimately provide our members with affordable broadband,” Matlock said.
Broadband has been a hot topic in La Plata County for quite some time, as multiple entities have attempted to bring better internet connection to the rural areas.
Earlier this month, the Southern Ute Indian Tribe completed the first phase of a $60 million, 300-mile-plus fiber optic broadband internet project that will ultimately deliver high-speed internet services to over 5,000 homes across the Southern Ute Reservation.
tbrown@durangoherald.com
