This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
According to the new Executive Director of NextLight, Valerie Dodd, NextLight is in well over half of Longmont homes and businesses.
Numbers to know:
- $15 Million is the annual revenue of NextLight.
- 20,286 Nextlight customers.
- 30% of installations are self-installs. Assuming the fiber drop is already installed in your home, picking up a NextLight modem and getting the service turned on takes on average 30 minutes.
- 1.1% is the 'churn' number (per month). This is the number of customers who drop service in a given month and is significantly below industry standards of 2-5%.
- 57% of premises (buildings) in Longmont have NextLight installed. Initial estimates 5 years ago put this number at 34%. "we're blowing the doors off" according to Director Dodd.
- 30 Minutes is how long it takes to get NextLight installed.
- 1 billion hours of Nexflix video is watched/downloaded per week.
- Network uptime is 99.99%.
They are focusing on building a sustainable business and have restructured the organization (NextLight) as a separate organization from LPC (Longmont Power and Communication).
New products and solutions will be coming called 'needs-based solutions' to address the digital divide.
Next, they will be taking on a more product and marketing based approach and will be directly addressing more sub-segments of the market with programs and pricing. Some of the areas being looked at include:
- Hispanic Market
- Gamers (10 Gig speeds?)
- A VPN network
- Low income
- Seniors
- Small business
- Non-profits
- Start-ups
In addition, NextLight will look at doing smart partnerships with over the top video and smart home devices.
NextLight is going to have online ordering available soon (no call-in required). In addition, they'll be doing a walk-in window for customer service and they're looking at expanding customer support hours.
Customer satisfaction is at 9.4 out of 10.
Some households don't have internet (about 77% of all households have internet). This gives Nextlight a 74% effective penetration rate into that 77% of households.
Data consumption continues to rise, but no specific numbers were given.
Director Dodd is aware that 5G (super-fast cellular phone service that may rival NextLight in data speeds) is coming but sees it as having potential business and revenue opportunities in 'unforeseen ways'.
Revenues and ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) are continuing to rise. The average customer's monthly bill is slightly over $51 mo.
Expenses to operate the network and provide services to the community are running under projection.
The City anticipates no problem in finishing off paying for the NextLight bond on time in 2029.
