Arcadian Kicks Off Construction Phase of LA to Phoenix Fiber Route

St. Louis, MO, February 21, 2023 – To accelerate the construction of its fiber routes in the Southwestern and Western US, Arcadian Infracom, a digital infrastructure development company, has entered into a public/private collaboration with the California Department of Technology to build long-haul and middle-mile fiber infrastructure in California.

In June 2021, the State of California passed historic legislation allocating $6 billion to fund its Broadband for All initiative, including $3.25 billion to create a middle-mile fiber network within California spanning 10,000 planned miles. The California Department of Technology leads the Middle-Mile Broadband Initiative that includes state partners California Department of Transportation and the California Public Utilities Commission. GoldenStateNet was chosen as the state’s third-party administrator. The 10,000 mile network is being built with public and private sector partners to ensure digital equity, access and inclusion for all Californians.

With California as an anchor customer, the highly desired Arcadian LA to Phoenix route is now slotted for delivery by mid-2027. The California portion of the route is expected to be completed by December 2026. Dan Davis, CEO of Arcadian commented, “Arcadian is pleased to have been selected by the California Department of Technology as its network partner for the construction of 300+ miles of greenfield fiber network in Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties. We expect this to be the first of a series of similar fiber infrastructure projects throughout California.” Mr. Davis added, “Our collaborative approach to public/private broadband development should be a model for other states. We believe this innovative partnership model ideally positions both Arcadian and the State for the coming rounds of government sponsored broadband funding programs.”

Founded in 2018 by seasoned communication industry leaders and headquartered in St. Louis MO, Arcadian Infracom is a digital infrastructure development, construction and operations company. Arcadian builds diverse, lower latency long-haul fiber routes connecting major data center locations for its cloud and content customers while providing low cost backhaul to digitally stranded rural and tribal communities for its telecom, cable company, ISP and enterprise customers. Arcadian purposefully routes its fiber through remote rural and tribal communities to help bridge the digital divide in the U.S. Arcadian currently has six long-haul fiber routes under development in the Western U.S. that when completed will add 3,500 route miles of critically needed new fiber infrastructure.

Arcadian long-haul fiber routes are poised to improve network diversity and bridge the digital divide in rural and tribal communities

ST. LOUIS, MO (PRWEB) MAY 09, 2022 — Arcadian Infracom, a fiber infrastructure company building diverse, lower latency long-haul fiber routes connecting major data center markets, has signed an agreement for the purchase of multiple fiber pairs along its Phoenix to Salt Lake City route by a well-established broadband provider. Arcadian has also now received the required easement from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to construct its first backbone fiber route through the heart of the Navajo Nation.

“These are two more significant examples of the tremendous support from both Arcadian customers and our public sector rights-of-way partners for Arcadian’s fiber routes,” said Dan Davis, CEO of Arcadian. “We appreciate the continued support and confidence our dark fiber customers have in the Arcadian business model and our goals to improve US national fiber backbone diversity and enable scalable broadband access in rural and tribal communities along the Arcadian routes.”

Running along Highway 89 between Flagstaff and Page, Arizona, this project will stretch the global internet backbone through the Navajo Nation and other rural communities as Arcadian creates a diverse, more direct fiber connection between Phoenix and Salt Lake City. The Navajo Arcadian Fiber Project, established in 2018 by Navajo legislation and expanded through 2020 legislation, will provide a long-term, sustainable fiber backhaul solution for communities along the fiber route. This scaled fiber backhaul connectivity is essential to enable distance learning, telemedicine, remote working capabilities, and other 21st century economic development opportunities for the people in these rural communities.

“The BIA easement is the culmination of a 3+ year, highly collaborative process with the Navajo Nation and the Department of the Interior’s BIA to build a major long haul fiber route through Indian country, rather than bypassing these communities as has happened in the past,” said Mr. Davis. “Arcadian is well positioned with shovel-ready projects that align with the tens of billions of dollars that individual states and the US government are providing to solve the rural and tribal broadband access problem.”

About Arcadian Infracom

Founded in 2018 by seasoned communications industry leaders and headquartered in St. Louis, MO, Arcadian Infracom is an internet infrastructure development, construction, and operations company. Arcadian builds diverse, lower latency long-haul fiber routes connecting major data center locations for its cloud and content customers while providing low cost backhaul to digitally stranded rural and tribal communities for its telecom, cable company, ISP and enterprise customers. Arcadian purposefully routes its fiber through remote rural and tribal communities to help close the digital divide in the U.S.

ST. LOUIS, MO, October 4, 2021 — Arcadian Infracom, a fiber infrastructure company, and TIAA, a leading provider of secure retirements and outcome-focused investment solutions to millions of people and thousands of institutions, have partnered to finance Arcadian’s first long haul fiber routes. TIAA will invest up to $140 million to accelerate fiber projects traversing the four-corners region of the Southwestern United States and grow the Arcadian digital infrastructure investment platform. The financial commitment from TIAA, along with customer purchase commitments will enable Arcadian to accelerate fiber construction.

“We are honored to work with such a respected financial leader as TIAA, which is committed to supporting early stage digital infrastructure projects. TIAA’s investment has the ability to significantly scale Arcadian’s capital-intensive business across multiple fiber routes as well as create additional synergistic investment opportunities as we route the digital ecosystem directly through rural and tribal markets,” said Dan Davis, CEO and co-founder of Arcadian. “As the son of a retired music teacher from rural Illinois, I am personally committed to the mission of TIAA and its founder, Andrew Carnegie, to provide long term financial security for education professionals.”

The highly anticipated fiber infrastructure routes connecting Phoenix to Salt Lake City and Phoenix to Denver are purposefully routed through remote rural and tribal communities. The routes are enabled by the 2018 first-of-its-kind value sharing partnership between Arcadian and Navajo Nation for the construction of long-haul fiber routes through the Navajo reservation. This diverse fiber routing provides much needed network diversity, resiliency, security and improved latency for Arcadian’s global cloud, content, carrier, cable and ISP customers. This routing strategy also synergistically enables high-speed broadband access and creates economic development opportunities in rural and tribal communities along Arcadian routes.

Nuveen, the investment manager of TIAA with over $1 trillion of assets, originated, underwrote and will manage the investment. “Key tenets of our portfolio strategy include identifying exceptional growth opportunities, managed by best-in-class teams and executed through responsible investment strategies,” said Andrew Deihl, Sector Head of Private Infrastructure at Nuveen. “The long term investment focus of TIAA aligns well with the patience and focus required for success in building Arcadian’s new core long haul fiber infrastructure with a life cycle measured across multiple decades.”

TIAA’s commitment to working with Arcadian Infracom will help meet the increasing global demand for responsible infrastructure investments that also aim to provide alternative sources of attractive returns. The investment will enhance Nuveen’s existing private infrastructure platform, which manages $5 billion across renewable energy, digital, telecoms, transportation and social infrastructure sectors globally and has delivered consistent investment performance for more than 10 years for our organization and our clients.

Houlihan Lokey acted as exclusive financial advisor to Arcadian with Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner providing legal counsel and Greenberg Traurig as special counsel to Arcadian on American Indian law matters. Bank Street Group LLC served as exclusive financial advisor to TIAA with Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP providing legal counsel and Lewis Roca as special counsel to TIAA on American Indian law matters. CMA Strategy Consulting served as market consultant to TIAA and Broadband Success Partners served as technical advisor to TIAA.

About Arcadian Infracom

Founded in 2018 by seasoned communications industry leaders and headquartered in St. Louis, MO, Arcadian Infracom is an internet infrastructure development, construction, and operations company. Arcadian builds diverse, lower latency long-haul fiber routes connecting major data center locations for its cloud and content customers while providing low cost backhaul to digitally stranded rural and tribal communities for its telecom, cable company, ISP and enterprise customers. Arcadian purposefully routes its fiber through remote rural and tribal communities to help close the digital divide in the U.S.

About TIAA

TIAA is a leading provider of secure retirements and outcome-focused investment solutions to millions of people and thousands of institutions. It is the #1 not-for-profit retirement market provider,¹ paid more than $3.6 billion to retired clients in 2020 and has $1.3 trillion in assets under management (as of 6/30/2021).²

¹ Based on data from 56 providers in PLANSPONSOR magazine’s 2019 DC Recordkeeping Survey, combined 457, 403(b) and money purchase plan data as of December 31, 2018.

² Based on approximately $1.3 trillion of assets under management across Nuveen affiliates and TIAA investment management teams as of 6/30/2021.