The Divide: How Surf Internet is growing its fiber footprint in the Great Lakes region

This episode features Gene Crusie, CEO of Surf Internet, a broadband service provider that's been around in various forms since the early 1990s, and today delivers broadband service in Indiana, Michigan and Illinois.

According to Crusie, Surf is on track to reach 200,000 passings with fiber by the end of 2024, with 70,000 of those being built this year.

Surf Internet is one of many regional ISPs building out in unserved and underserved areas with a mix of private and public funding, and through strategic acquisitions. All in, Surf has won roughly $40 million in grant funding thus far. The company also has investment funding from DigitalBridge, Bain Capital and Post Road Group, and is in the midst of building out in parts of Michigan and across the Great Lakes region.

He joins the podcast to discuss the history of Surf, as well as when and why Surf started deploying fiber-to-the-premises, how a mix of public and private funds enables Surf to reach underserved and unserved communities, how and where Surf is planning to participate in the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program and more.

Here are a few topics covered in this conversation:

For a lightly edited transcript, click the caption button on the podcast player.