SpringNet Network Expansion

City Utilities to Expand Fiber Network with CenturyLink as First Customer

Springfield, MO – City Utilities of Springfield (CU) announces plans to expand its fiber optic network by over 1,000 route miles to enable affordable high-speed broadband services to all of Springfield. The fiber will be made available for lease to private broadband providers with CenturyLink, Inc. (NYSE: CTL) as the first customer, bringing its fiber internet service to every home and business in Springfield.

SpringNet, a division of City Utilities, was established in 1987 to provide internal communications to the utility and local municipal government facilities via fiber optic circuits. In 1997, SpringNet began delivering fiber optic broadband services to area businesses and today provides up to 40 Gbps Ethernet interface to over 600 local and nationwide customers. To learn more about SpringNet visit https://www.springnet.net/

CenturyLink is a technology leader delivering hybrid networking, cloud connectivity, and security solutions to customers located in more than 60 countries to meet the growing digital demands of consumers and businesses. The company has spent the past 20 years creating its global, national and metro networks, carefully selecting fiber assets from some of the best domestic and international companies in the world. CenturyLink, a provider of high-speed internet service to communities across the country, including Columbia and Jefferson City, Mo., owns and operates approximately 450,000 global route miles of fiber.

“Access to reliable high-speed broadband services drives economic development and is essential to every community,” said Dean Thompson, City Utilities Associate General Manager for Economic Development and SpringNet. “Working with private industry to make the best use of public infrastructure minimizes work in the rights-of-way and helps to ensure all areas of our community have access to affordable broadband choices.”

“We’re pleased to be the first provider to contract with City Utilities in this fiber network expansion, bringing Fiber Gigabit with symmetrical upload and download speeds up to 940 megabits per second to Springfield,” said Chris Denzin, CenturyLink Vice President of Consumer Sales. “Springfield residents and businesses need fiber to efficiently support numerous internet connections for cloud-based applications, smart home devices, education, healthcare, video streaming and gaming. CenturyLink fiber internet service can provide the capacity subscribers need, now and into the future.”

Currently, CU has 700 route miles of fiber optics deployed throughout the system with construction of the new network expected to begin this fall with work done by City Utilities contractors. CU is investing approximately $120 Million over the next four years to construct the network with no customer rate increases paying for the network expansion. CenturyLink fiber internet service is expected to be available to residents and businesses in the first build area during the spring of 2020.

More information about CenturyLink Fiber Gigabit in Springfield can be found at www.centurylink.com/springfieldfiber. Also, residents can follow CenturyLink on Facebook and Twitter for updates on the availability of Fiber Gigabit service in Springfield.