Friday, Holland BPW opened up fiber signups to customers in downtown Hudsonville.

Their new site mimics the Holland signup page, with the same services and pricing.

Why Hudsonville? As part of their downtown redevelopment they approached Holland BPW to provide gigabit internet service. They want it for local businesses and their new Terra Square coworking space. Thanks to the downtown Holland project, BPW is set up as an ISP and has everything ready to provide great service.

Hudsonville won’t have to pay BPW to hook up customers. BPW will use a Demand Aggregation model (as we described previously) to build only when enough customers sign up to cover the costs. Hudsonville did a lot of smart work to lay conduit to buildings, making fiber cheaper & easier to install. BPW is only asking for 12 customer commitments before beginning construction.

BPW’s fiber already goes right through Hudsonville (map). Unlike power & water, which are highly regulated, broadband service can expand anywhere that makes financial sense.

I was initially tempted to complain, “why Hudsonville before my home?” but we should see this a good thing. It further solidifies that Holland BPW is an ISP. It shows their intent to go into new areas. We expect to hear a plan for going into Holland neighborhoods soon. We’ll be working to push that forward as soon as we can.