Cleveland's Performance-Based Broadband Model Drives Rapid Growth

June 19, 2026 — A performance-based contract, a fast-scaling nonprofit provider and a wireless technology built for tree-covered conditions have combined to connect more than tens of thousands of households in Cleveland – a city that many have considered underserved.

The arrangement was detailed in a Juneteenth webinar hosted by Broadband Breakfast. The arrangement ties together funding from Cleveland, the growth of nonprofit provider DigitalC, and next-generation fixed wireless (ngFWA) equipment supplied by Tarana Wireless.

One defining feature highlighted in the webinar was accountability for performance. 

Cleveland City Councilman Brian Kazy, who chairs the city's utilities committee, said he insisted in creating a performance-based contract that benefited the city before signing off on an expenditure of $20 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds.

“DigitalC it has shown accountability to our residents that we're spending money the way we should spend it, and it's holding DigitalC accountable," said Kazy. 

The council requires quarterly audits to keep the provider on track, and Kazy said the approach has since spread to other cities. "This one here started it all," he said.

DigitalC CEO Joshua Edmonds endorsed the approach. "Stop running from transparency, lean into accountability, and you'll get the results that you need to grow and scale," he said. 

The nonprofit built a citywide network across 59 towers in 17-and-a-half months, surpassed 10,000 subscribing homes since January 2024, and is on track for 7,100 new subscribers this year, up from 4,500 the prior year. 

Edmonds also said the non-profit has trained more than 30,000 with digital skills, and is now expanding into Detroit. Further, it maintains a more than 4.7 star rating across more than 230 customer reviews.

Because DigitalC is not chasing shareholder returns, he said, the non-profit allows public, private and philanthropic capital to cover network costs. Despite competition from Verizon, T-Mobile and Starlink, Edmonds said, "I look at this actually as the greatest collaborative broadband effort that we've seen to date." 

The flagship product delivers 100 Megabit per second (Mbps) * 100 Mbps symmetrical broadband speeds for only $18 a month.

"It became very clear to us that Tarana Wireless was the only thing that we could use to accomplish the goals," Edmonds said. He also said the non-profit was able to hire local technicians without telecom backgrounds as installers.

Tarana Vice President of Government Affairs and Policy Carl Guardino said that DigitalC “represents everything that we look for in what we call the four legs of the table,” referring to affordability, reliability, high speed in both directions, and low-latency.

He also spoke about the way that a non-profit organization like DigitalC, the city of Cleveland, state and federal governments and technology providers can work together.

Tarana radios communicate with home receivers literally thousands of times every second, routing signals around trees, rain and snow. Fixed wireless deployment comes in at "a 10th to a 20th of the cost" of fiber and far faster, helping drive Tarana into 28 countries, 48 states and 40 percent of U.S. counties with more than 350 ISP partners, he said.

Full event video: