CLARKSVILLE, TN – In 2007, the Clarksville Department of Electricity built a fiber optic network across the city, installing new lines to every home and business that would allow remote meter management, faster power restoration and operational efficiencies. The system would also allow the newly re-branded CDE Lightband to offer high-speed broadband internet, voice over IP phone services and IPTV services to residential and business customers.

To make that possible, CDE’s broadband division borrowed $17 million from the electric division, according to a CDE news release.

“It was a daunting task and a challenging time for all of us as we took a giant leap in the investment for our community and started a new business that was very different from our current business model,” CDE Lightband General Manager Brian Taylor said in the release.

As the electric division of CDE Lightband owns and maintains the fiber network, the broadband division must pay annual lease payments, loan payments and shared cost allocations totaling upwards of $10 million annually, the release said.

This has allowed the electric division to build or upgrade six substations for a total of $29 million plus an over $16 million campus upgrade and remodel, all out of cash funds rather than take these large investments to the bond market. CDE has been able to make another $10 million a year in other electric grid improvements.

Fourteen years later, CDE Lightband broadband has over 30% penetration in the market with over 25,000 customers. “They are the preferred primary provider for two local governments, the school system and university along with many other enterprise level customers and small businesses,” the release said.

The revenues have allowed CDE Lightband to pay off the interdivision loan 17 years earlier than projected.

“This is a milestone that we have worked hard to achieve and our broadband team and our customers have helped us to be the success we are today. I could not be more proud of the progress we have made and of the important role that CDE Lightband plays in the community,” Taylor said.