Windstream is expanding the availability of its Kinetic fiber internet services, with speeds up to 1 gigabit, reaching about 100,000 commercial locations across 16 states this year.

The buildout, expected to be mostly complete in the first quarter, lays the groundwork for future expansions to meet growing business needs. It will mean about one-third of commercial locations, primarily SMBs across Windstream’s rural footprint, will have access to gig services, up from the current 1 percent.

Windstream’s Jeff Auman

Jeff Auman, Windstream‘s senior vice president of sales, tells Channel Partners the expansion means existing Windstream partners will be able to sell the Kinetic brand to 100,000 locations across 16 states.

“Essentially what we’re doing is providing more services for existing partners within our distribution network to sell,” he said. “They now will have more to sell in fiber and DSL, and other services. We’re going to continue to evolve our Kinetic brand as we look at messaging and offers associated with it.”

For SMBs, bringing fiber internet connections to their doorsteps will enable stronger offerings from Kinetic Business, such as cloud voice services, next-generation networking and business continuity plans. It also will power bandwidth-intensive applications such as video conferencing, file sharing and HD content consumption.

“Businesses should be assured that all of their data needs – from point-of-sale transactions to high-quality voice and virtual conference rooms to high-bandwidth applications – can be met by leveraging the same high-speed connections that businesses in urban centers enjoy,” said Jeff Small, president of Windstream’s consumer and small and medium-size business division.

The Kinetic Business suite of services includes high-speed internet, cloud voice services, and network security solutions.

“It’s not just providing speed, but providing products that enable businesses to be successful,” Auman said. “What we’re trying to do is bring all of our SMB customers in our footprint … up to gig speed, as far as this 2019 push.”