Georgia DOT awards broadband contract to PBI Fiber

Plenary Americas, through its digital infrastructure joint venture with Tikehau Star Infra (TSI) and Tilson, called Plenary Broadband Infrastructure (PBI), was selected by the Georgia Department of Transportation (Georgia DOT) as the Operations, Maintenance and Commercialization partner for their Statewide Broadband project, which will install broadband along all interstates in Georgia.

When completed, a portion of the 1,400-miles of broadband infrastructure will be dedicated to Georgia DOT’s traffic operations with additional capacity reserved for commercial use which will provide faster, more reliable broadband access for communities, households and businesses in 70 Georgia counties.

PBI has previously partnered with the North Carolina Department of Transportation and Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission and is pleased to announce the new partnership with Georgia DOT. During the next 25 years, PBI will operate, maintain and commercialize approximately 650 route miles of fiber within Georgia Interstate roads, adding to the 1,100+ route miles from the two existing partnerships. 

Quotes:

“Expanding broadband access throughout Georgia is critical to bridging the digital divide, ensuring that rural and underserved communities can access essential online services for education, health care, and economic opportunities,” Georgia DOT Commissioner Russell R. McMurry said. “This is an innovative approach to project delivery and financing that leverages the private sector to meet the state’s transportation and broadband infrastructure needs.”

“We are excited for the opportunity to partner with GDOT to support critical traffic operations and provide expanded broadband access throughout Georgia,” said Devin Campbell, Vice President at Plenary Americas. “PBI is well-positioned to leverage its unique expertise operating publicly-owned, statewide networks in Pennsylvania and North Carolina to maintain a strategic public asset that will generate ongoing economic benefits for the region.”

“We are thrilled to work with Georgia DOT on this procurement as part of the PBI team. New fiber capacity providing unique and protected routes will fuel Georgia’s technological growth and its path to become a datacenter hub.” said Christophe Petit, Head of Tikehau Star Infra.

“The Georgia interstate system is the most direct, protected and lowest latency paths to rapidly expanding data center clusters in Georgia and to the north and south. Tilson is committed to providing PBI Fiber and Georgia DOT long-term, reliable maintenance and operational support to maximize network quality and uptime for both intelligent transportation, and long haul telecom service,” said Joshua Broder, CEO of Tilson Infrastructure.

Further information is available on the Georgia DOT project website, here.

About Plenary Broadband Infrastructure (PBI)

PBI develops, operates, and commercializes long haul fiber routes for hyperscale data center operators and telecom carrier transport, including significant routes on the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission right of way and North Carolina DOT interstate highway system. PBI is backed by Plenary Americas, Tikehau Star Infra, and Tilson.  

Media contacts:

Georgia DOT
Mediarequests@dot.ga.gov

Plenary Americas and PBI Fiber
Stephanie Williamson