ST. LOUIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CountryWide Broadband Group (CWBG), a St. Louis-based broadband acquisition and management firm, has continued its expansion by acquiring Full Channel Cable of Rhode Island, and by expanding its all-fiber, i3 Broadband network in the greater Peoria and Champaign-Urbana, Illinois markets by more than 25 percent so far this year. Seaport Capital of New York (Seaport) is CWBG’s equity partner in the acquisition and expansion.
“With the addition of Full Channel, and by extending our network in Peoria and Champaign-Urbana, we are continuing to execute on our long-term vision of expanding our footprint and customer base,” said Grier Raclin, President and CEO of CWBG. “We are also rolling out new services to our customers, and offering them more flexible service packages.”
For the latest broadband property in its portfolio, CWBG has acquired Full Channel, a leading provider of broadband video entertainment, high-speed internet access, and telephone services to residents and businesses in Rhode Island’s East Bay area, south of Providence. Full Channel operates a deep fiber network, currently offering up to 320 Mbps internet access on a stand-alone or bundled basis. CWBG is preparing to increase Full Channel’s internet access speeds to up to 1 Gbps and to roll out new video and telephone products to Full Channel’s customers.
CWBG is also continuing to expand its Illinois properties, i3 Broadband, a provider of internet, TV, and telephone services through a 100 percent fiber-to-the-home network in the greater Peoria and Champaign-Urbana, Illinois markets. Since the acquisition of its Peoria-area network in 2016 and its Champaign-Urbana network in 2017, CWBG already has grown the i3 Broadband network more than 25 percent with extensions into more than 20 new neighborhoods. i3 Broadband will further expand its all-fiber network in the greater Peoria and Champaign-Urbana areas starting early this year.
“The CountryWide Broadband Group team brings years of operating knowledge and industry experience to i3 Broadband and Full Channel,” said Bill Luby, Partner at Seaport. “We’ve worked closely with them over the past two years as we pursued plans to acquire broadband properties in order to bring high-speed broadband services to consumers in smaller cities normally overlooked by larger telecom companies. We look forward to further acquisitions and growth.”
CWBG is pursuing plans to identify, acquire, consolidate, and grow additional broadband properties in markets throughout the United States.
About CountryWide Broadband Group, Inc.
CountryWide Broadband Group, Inc. (CWBG), headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, is a broadband acquisition and management firm headed by a management team with broad expertise in the fiber-optic, cable and telephone industries. The CWBG executive team has almost 100 years’ experience in telecommunications, having served as senior executives for Charter Communications, Williams Communications, Fidelity Communications and Global TeleSystems of London, England.
About Seaport Capital
Seaport Capital is a New York City-based private equity firm that invests in recurring revenue companies operating in the communications, information and business services sectors. Current Seaport portfolio companies in the cable industry include i3 Broadband, a “triple-play” fiber-optic service provider in Central Illinois; and previous Seaport cable investments include Everest Communications, Marianas Cablevision, Otelco and Metrocast Cablevision.
