BUFFALO, N.Y., November 24, 2020 – Greenlight Networks, the fastest fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) provider in New York State, today announced that it has signed a Master License Agreement with the City of Buffalo and pre-construction work to lay its fiber broadband network is underway. High-speed Internet service is scheduled to be available in parts of the City of Buffalo starting in the second quarter of 2021. Greenlight expects its service to be available to nearly 10,000 homes across the Buffalo Niagara region by the end of 2021.

“There is clearly a demand and need in this community as more than 14,000 Western New Yorkers have visited our website and expressed interest in our faster fiber Internet service,” said Mark Murphy, President and Chief Executive Officer of Greenlight Networks. “This was reinforced when the pandemic hit and the impact it has had has demonstrated to everyone the importance of having fast and reliable internet. During this time when we have all been forced to work and learn from home, we have seen an increase in demand for our high-speed Internet services and are pleased to announce our initial expansion plans in the Buffalo area.”

Murphy shared that the company installed its network POP (Point of Presence) in Buffalo last month and has identified several network hub locations. Greenlight also announced that it has secured agreements with National Grid and Verizon to access the utility poles required to deploy its network throughout the city of Buffalo. Applications to attach hundreds of utility poles have already been submitted to National Grid and Verizon and work to prepare the poles for Greenlight’s fiber network is underway.

In the initial build areas which are just north of downtown Buffalo, Greenlight team members will be contacting homeowners to obtain easements, which provide legal permission for Greenlight to run its fiber network under portions of neighbors’ properties in order to access the utility poles.

Murphy noted that RG&E, through its affiliation with NYSEG, is blocking Greenlight’s expansion into other areas of Erie County by withholding a pole attachment agreement. “Our expansion will only go as fast as the utilities companies are able to process applications and prepare the poles for our fiber,” explained Murphy. “Under the agreements we have in place with National Grid and Verizon, Greenlight will pay our fair share to ensure this happens, but the utility company is responsible for updating old infrastructure and deferred maintenance required for us to move forward.”

Last December, Greenlight announced that Tom Golisano, controlling equity partner in in the company invested an additional $100 million to fund the fiber optic network expansion across Erie and Niagara Counties. Under its joint venture with LeChase Construction, a New York based construction management company with 75 years of experience, Greenlight will utilize local Buffalo contractors to lay its fiber-optic cables across the Buffalo Niagara region.

“Greenlight is building a new network here in Buffalo, not riding an existing one,” explains Murphy. “We are bringing a new technology to this market that enables higher speeds. Constructing a fiber network is an arduous process and involves significant design, planning and construction work to lay hundreds of miles of new fiber-optic cable, which supports much higher data transmission speeds than traditional networks. Parts of this process are reliant on the utility companies, municipalities and homeowners and we plan to keep the community informed of our progress as we build out our network.”

Greenlight’s fiber optic network will deliver data speeds as high as 2 Gbps, with a base speed of 500 Mbps, which is five times faster and 25 percent less expensive than the incumbent cable provider, with no contracts, taxes or hidden fees. Fiber internet provides the best possible online experience for gaming or streaming high-quality video and supports simultaneous high-speed connections across multiple devices.

Buffalo Niagara region residents can visit Greenlight’s dedicated webpage and complete an interest form. Residents in the initial build areas are expected to be able to place pre-orders for service beginning in the 1st quarter of 2021.

About Greenlight Networks, LLC: Greenlight Networks is an ultra-high-speed, broadband service provider, offering residential and small business customers Internet speeds up to 2 Gigabit per second. Greenlight Networks was founded in 2011 in Rochester, N.Y. Tom Golisano acquired a controlling interest in Greenlight Networks in mid-2018. Since then, Greenlight has tripled its staff and brought high-speed fiber internet to more than 40,000 homes in 13 municipalities. The company builds, owns and operates its fiber-optic networks to provide amazingly fast Internet connections to its customers. For more information on the company, visit GreenlightNetworks.com or find it on Facebook.com/GreenlightNetworks, and @GreenlightFiber on Twitter.