Ohio and AltaFiber Commit $130 Million to Rural Broadband Expansion
State and private officials announced a $130 million partnership that will extend high speed internet to roughly 38,000 addresses across Adams, Brown and Clermont counties, addressing thousands of homes that lack adequate service. The investment aims to open access to jobs, healthcare and education for rural residents, with construction phased through 2028.
Ohio and AltaFiber announced on December 22, 2025 a $130 million public private partnership to expand high speed internet service across three rural counties in southwest Ohio. The program will reach approximately 38,000 addresses in Adams County, Brown County and Clermont County, including about 13,000 homes that were previously without any reliable service.
Under the agreement AltaFiber will contribute roughly $80 million, while the state will provide $50 million to help fund construction and network build out. Project planners said the economics of bringing fiber to sparsely populated areas required both public investment and private capital to proceed.
Adams County is slated to receive the largest share of new service, with more than 7,000 addresses identified as completely underserved, followed by roughly 5,000 addresses in Brown County and about 1,000 in Clermont County. Over the next several years crews will install fiber and associated infrastructure where existing service is inadequate or absent.
Local residents have long described persistent connectivity problems across the region, and reports from areas where fiber has already been installed indicate material improvements in speed and reliability. Expanded broadband is expected to affect everyday life in the county by improving access to remote healthcare services, online education and job training opportunities, while also supporting small business operations that depend on dependable internet connections.
AltaFiber, formerly known as Cincinnati Bell, operates in more than a dozen markets across Ohio and Indiana and will oversee much of the network construction and service delivery. Officials set a schedule with the first phase of the program to be completed by December 31, 2026, and subsequent phases to finish in 2028.
For Adams County residents, the rollout represents a major infrastructure upgrade that could reduce the digital divide between rural communities and urban centers, and create new pathways for economic and civic participation as the network comes online.
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