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.

Latest Funding Accelerates 2Q2021 Construction Start Date for Arcadian Fiber Routes

Arcadian Infracom today announces the closing of an additional $1.45m financing round, anchored by a select number of senior executives in the communications infrastructure industry. Arcadian also announces the expansion of its Advisory Board, along with significant capital investments to enable an accelerated construction kickoff of its first fiber backbone routes.

This round of funding, led by seasoned communications infrastructure industry executives, allows Arcadian to quickly scale and complete its final route engineering and permitting efforts. With this new funding, Arcadian is expediting construction and securing final route delivery dates for its first announced fiber routes, spanning Salt Lake City to Phoenix, and Phoenix to Denver. This highly anticipated route will be the first-ever to traverse these areas of the U.S. Southwest, providing a more direct fiber route between major data center markets.

This $1.45m investment follows a $1.35m funding round in late 2019, enabling further expansion of the Arcadian team and its operating infrastructure. Arcadian will also use the new capital to accelerate development of its pipeline of fiber route construction opportunities, including a 1,500-mile route from Los Angeles to Dallas via Flagstaff and Albuquerque. Each fiber route developed, constructed, and operated by Arcadian adds security, redundancy and resiliency for Arcadian’s cloud, content, telecom, cable company, ISP and enterprise customers.

Arcadian is also pleased to announce the expansion of its Advisory Board with the addition of Karen Puckett, former President and Chief Operating Officer of CenturyLink. Ms. Puckett has 30+ years of communications infrastructure industry experience. Most recently Ms. Puckett was President and CEO at Harte Hanks. At CenturyLink, Ms. Puckett directed all global operations, including sales, marketing, field operations, engineering, and construction. In addition to her senior management roles, Ms. Puckett has served as a director for the United States Telecom Association (USTA) and currently serves as an independent director for Entergy.

“I appreciate the continued trust and support of our investors and customers as the Arcadian teams mobilize to ‘turn the first shovel of dirt` to complete our backbone fiber routes. I look forward to collaborating with Karen again, having worked together for more than a decade at CenturyLink. We have a shared vision for Arcadian to build a scalable, flexible, sustainable commercial business interwoven with a larger purpose to close the U.S. rural digital divide,” commented Dan Davis, CEO and co-founder of Arcadian Infracom.

“I am excited to work with Dan again through Arcadian. Dan is building a world-class team of seasoned professionals and taking a clean-sheet, legacy-free approach to building out its operations. This is a great opportunity to help shape Arcadian to realize its financial, operational and purpose-oriented potential” commented Ms. Puckett.

Ms. Puckett joins Jim O’Donnell on the Arcadian Advisory Board. Mr. O’Donnell has over 35 years of experience as an investment professional in private equity, venture capital, mezzanine and leveraged buyout investments. For 20 years Jim held the position of Chairman & CEO of Capital For Business, a middle market investment firm producing $500m in revenue focused on manufacturing and value-added industrial services companies. He formerly served on the Executive Committee of the Association of Corporate Growth (ACG), the premier M&A organization for middle market deal makers, with 14,000 members internationally.

About Arcadian Infracom
Founded in 2018 and headquartered in St. Louis, MO, Arcadian Infracom is an internet infrastructure development, construction, and operations company. Arcadian builds diverse, lower latency fiber routes connecting major data center locations for its cloud and content customers. The Arcadian routes also provide its telecom, cable company, ISP and enterprise customers with low cost backhaul to digitally stranded rural and tribal communities.

For more information on Arcadian Infracom please contact us at info@arcadianinfra.com and visit https://arcadianinfra.com.

This article is republished from PRWeb under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here.

Final Regulatory Authority Enables Arcadian Fiber Route Kickoff

Arcadian Infracom, transforming lives through fiber backbone infrastructure, today announced that it has received public utility authority in the State of Arizona. With this final of four required certifications, Arcadian has started final engineering and permitting of its first 1,300 miles of fiber backbone routes in the Southwest U.S.

The most recent PUC authority, granted by the State of Arizona, provides Arcadian authority to construct its underground global fiber backbone routes along most public roadways in four states. Arcadian is building its fiber routes across these states to create redundant global connectivity for its cloud, content, telecom, cable, ISP and enterprise customers. These new fiber backbone facilities will also foster a digital ecosystem of economic development for the people living in communities along the Arcadian routes. This new direct global backbone fiber will support new businesses and enable massively scaled internet access backhaul to support improved local broadband.

“We appreciate all of the hard work and endless tenacity that our team has demonstrated over the past 2 ½ years to reach this important milestone. Our team includes not only our core employees but also an almost untold number of local legal teams, state advocates, utility authority staff and numerous other advisors”, commented Dan Davis, CEO and co-founder of Arcadian Infracom. “This accomplishment shows what is possible when you have a truly world-class group of people who all share the same passion for accomplishing such a worthwhile purpose. We will, of course, deliver a world class fiber network for our customers and create outstanding shareholder value. By acting with authentic purpose, we also generate transformative economic and social benefits for people living in the rural and tribal communities served by our fiber.”

The certifications in both Arizona and New Mexico will also be utilized with previously granted certifications in Texas, and anticipated certification in California, to later begin construction of Arcadian’s next diverse fiber backbone route. That second 1,500-mile route will connect Los Angeles to Dallas, via Flagstaff and Albuquerque, providing long needed East/West U.S. global internet infrastructure fiber connecting the West coast to major mid-US markets. Arcadian will again be connecting people in rural and tribal communities along this second global fiber backbone route to close the digital divide by bringing scaled internet backhaul capacity to these digitally stranded communities.

About Arcadian Infracom
Founded in 2018 and headquartered in St. Louis, MO, Arcadian Infracom is an internet infrastructure development, construction, and operations company. Arcadian builds diverse, lower latency fiber routes connecting major data center locations for its cloud and content customers. The Arcadian routes also provide its telecom, cable company, ISP and enterprise customers with low cost backhaul to digitally stranded rural and tribal communities.

For more information on Arcadian Infracom please contact us at info@arcadianinfra.com and visit https://arcadianinfra.com.

This article is republished from PRWeb under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here.

Navajo Tribal Council Approves New Arcadian Fiber Partnership Legislation

Arcadian Infracom announces unanimously adopted Navajo Nation legislation further solidifying and extending its unique fiber backbone development partnership with the Navajo Nation.

In December 2018, the Resources and Development Committee of the Navajo Nation Council approved legislation to create a partnership with Arcadian to develop long-haul fiber optic cable routes along Navajo Nation rights-of-way. This new Navajo legislation extends the scope and deepens that fiber partnership, creating a broader, more direct relationship between Arcadian Infracom and the government of the Navajo Nation. The new legislation also helps accelerate Arcadian Infracom’s financing and fiber construction process to enable critically needed, scaled broadband access for the Navajo people in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis.

Arcadian Infracom will create the first scaled fiberoptic communications network across the Navajo Nation, linking major data centers in Phoenix directly to those in Salt Lake City and Denver. A second route will also later connect a portion of the Navajo Nation to Los Angeles and Dallas. When the Arcadian fiber network becomes operational, the Nation will finally have direct access to high capacity fiberoptic transmission to the Internet to support unprecedented telehealth, educational, business, and commercial opportunities in the connected economy of the 21st century.

“I am deeply honored by the trust the Navajo Nation has placed in the Arcadian team”, says Dan Davis, CEO of Arcadian Infracom. “This unique partnership uses long-haul fiber route construction as an economic development tool for the Navajo people. Given the ongoing COVID-19 public health emergency within the Navajo Nation, it is imperative that we continue to work closely together to create opportunities for the Nation to move beyond the tragic reality that they currently have no scaled fiber backbone connectivity to the rest of the world.”

“The Navajo Nation welcomes the opportunity to grow the strategic partnership with Arcadian Infracom”, commented the Honorable Rick Nez, Chairman of the Navajo Council’s Resources and Development Committee. “The new legislation expands a trusting and strategic relationship to really move the needle on broadband access within the Navajo Nation. This broadened partnership creates new value and opportunity for the Navajo Nation and future generations of its people.”

About Arcadian Infracom: Arcadian designs, constructs, and operates long-haul fiber and internet infrastructure solutions to add resiliency, rural market access and capacity to the US internet backbone. With a foundation built on a first-of-its-kind partnership with the Navajo Nation, the Arcadian team develops innovative partnerships with rural and Tribal communities to stretch the core internet backbone through previously bypassed communities. Arcadian creates unique infrastructure solutions for its customers, financial value for its shareholders and economic development opportunities for rural and Tribal communities and rights-of-way providers along its fiber routes.

For more information on Arcadian Infracom, please contact us at info@arcadianinfra.com and visit https://arcadianinfra.com.

This article is republished from PRWeb under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here.

Arcadian Infracom, a new longhaul fiber infrastructure provider has closed its first round of funding.

Arcadian Infracom, a new custom long-haul fiber infrastructure provider, today announced a first closing of its seed financing round.

Headquartered in St. Louis, MO, Arcadian has assembled a team of seasoned fiber network development professionals. Arcadian constructs and operates custom long-haul fiber networks to provide global technology companies and carriers with diverse long-haul fiber solutions to connect their data centers and local networks. These new routes will meet the demand of cloud, content and telecom companies for dark fiber solutions that improve the redundancy, security and scalability of the U.S. internet backbone.

“The Arcadian team appreciates this vote of confidence from telecom industry investors,” commented Dan Davis, CEO and co-founder of Arcadian Infracom. “The Arcadian business provides critical infrastructure to the largest global technology companies while also solving a vexing economic development problem in the smallest, most rural communities in the United States.”

This investment will allow Arcadian to grow its team of right-of-way acquisition, partnering and engineering teams. Route development and engineering has already begun on rights-of-way between Salt Lake City and Phoenix, and between Phoenix and Denver. Arcadian is also developing a new fiber route from Dallas to Los Angeles via Albuquerque and Flagstaff.

The last major backbone routes were completed 18-20 years ago. At that time many areas of the US were bypassed by these fiber routes, creating technology deserts around rural and tribal communities located far from these fiber backbones. Lack of fiber connectivity between these rural communities and existing fiber backbones is a key cause of unaffordable or unavailable high-speed broadband internet access within these communities. As hyperscale and data center companies explore these rural areas as possible data center build locations, the need for fiber connectivity into these communities increases. Arcadian will build its fiber networks using design and construction techniques as well as low-cost fiber access methods to drive down the cost of providing internet backhaul connectivity into these distant rural and tribal communities.

Arcadian was founded by Dan Davis and Derek Garnier in 2018 to fulfil the pent-up demand for new, diverse long-haul fiber routes across North America. The hyperscale growth of cloud and data center infrastructure companies throughout the U.S. has created a high demand for scaled dark fiber solutions to connect these data center locations throughout the U.S. Existing long-haul fiber routes lack geographic route diversity, have high operating costs and are generally not available for purchase from the few remaining U.S. long-haul fiber carriers.

About Arcadian Infracom

Arcadian Infracom is a fiber infrastructure provider constructing new diverse, lower latency routes between major US data center markets, purposefully routing its fiber through remote rural and tribal areas to help solve the rural and tribal broadband access problem.

For more information on Arcadian Infracom please contact us at info@arcadianinfra.com and visit https://arcadianinfra.com.

This article is republished from PRWeb under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here.