A Milestone Year for Triangle Communications

The year 2025 marked a significant milestone for Triangle Communications (Triangle). A vision set in motion in the early 2000’s was to bring fiber-optic service to every member. Today, 100 percent of Triangle members are served by fiber optics.

This achievement reflects decades of leadership, foresight, and dedication. We extend our deepest gratitude to past and present trustees and employees whose commitment made this vision possible. Equally important, we thank our members and the landowners who partnered with us to extend fiber across our 24,000 square-mile service territory.

As we continue to focus on delivering the services our members rely on while remaining strong community partners, Triangle has taken another historic step to ensure the long-term stability of the cooperative.

Universal Service Fund (USF) support has been a topic of discussion with our members for many years. USF remains critical to our ability to provide telecommunications services in our rural communities. In 2023, Triangle faced an important decision regarding the future of our USF participation. A new participation model was introduced, bringing with it additional build-out obligations but also long-term certainty

By electing to participate in the Enhanced A-CAM model, Triangle secured support certainty for the next 15 years. We officially entered this model on January 1, 2024.

The Enhanced A-CAM program includes build-out requirements in our service area. These requirements extend service to locations that have not previously requested it. The obligations must be completed by December 31, 2028, with specific benchmarks along the way. Meeting these requirements will require hundreds of miles of construction.

While the annual construction mileage is lower than recent years, the work presents new challenges. Previous construction was concentrated within geographic exchange areas, allowing for greater efficiencies in travel, setup, construction and tear down. Under the new model, projects are more dispersed, requiring additional time and coordination.

For the next several years, our team will remain focused on meeting these critical build-out requirements. During this time, some new service requests may take additional coordination as we prioritize construction milestones tied to the Enhanced A-CAM program. Staying on schedule is essential to protecting the funding that makes this expansion possible for our members.

We sincerely appreciate our members’ continued support as we work toward this next major milestone for the cooperative. As always, our staff and leadership team are available to answer questions and provide information. Thank you for your patronage and thank you for your continued support.

Be safe and stay healthy!

- Craig Gates General Manager/CEO