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# Fidium Breaking Ground on BEAD Work, Signing Hyperscaler Deals
- URL: https://broadbandbreakfast.com/fidium-breaking-ground-on-bead-work-signing-hyperscaler-deals/
- Published: 2026-09-02T18:24:47.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-02T21:47:03.000Z
- Description: The company is still aiming for 2 million fiber passings by the end of 2027
- Author: Jake Neenan
- Tags: Infrastructure, Fidium, Gaurav Jujena, BEAD, New Hampshire, #with-siderail, FBA

WASHINGTON, Sept. 2, 2026 – Fidium is breaking ground on some Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program passings and signing connectivity deals with hyperscalers, the company’s CEO said Wednesday.

Fidium CEO **Gaurav Juneja** said that the company had broken ground on a BEAD project in Maine, and that New Hampshire and Vermont would hopefully follow soon. He spoke on a Fiber Broadband Association webinar.

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BEAD projects are just beginning to [get off the ground](https://broadbandbreakfast.com/with-all-bead-plans-approved-states-and-territories-set-to-spend-18-2-billion-on-deployment/), as states and ISPs finalize grant contracts and begin the permitting process. Fidium had completed both of those in New Hampshire, which is also its most-served state with 400,000 passings, Juneja said.

The company, known as Consolidated Communications until September 2025, was taken private by Searchlight Capital in December 2024\. Juneja said the provider is still aiming for 2 million fiber passings by the end of 2027, which would represent about 80 percent of its [legacy copper footprint](https://broadbandbreakfast.com/isps-want-to-continue-to-discontinue-copper-service/) getting upgraded.

The company currently has more than 1.5 million fiber passings, he said, and is targeting 1.64 million by the end of 2026\. Juneja told Broadband Breakfast in a [September 2025 interview](https://broadbandbreakfast.com/consolidated-rebranding-as-fidium/) the company had 1.56 million fiber passings at the time.

Juneja also said last year the company hoped to eventually push beyond the 2 million mark. He took the CEO spot earlier this year after three years with the company.

He said Wednesday that while he couldn’t disclose the company’s fiber penetration, that figure had more than doubled since 2023\. 

As for working with Searchlight, Juneja said the two were “very aligned philosophically and very aligned strategically.” He said as a private company it was easier to invest in things like updating IT systems and better consumer experiences without worrying about generating short-term returns.

### *Hyperscalers*

Juneja said Fidium was looking to provide data center connectivity, both with long-distance dark fiber and last-mile connections.

He said the company had one such project underway “with a big hyperscaler,” and had signed a second deal just this week.

Juneja didn’t say which providers the company was working with. Verizon signed a similar deal with Google this year.

At the Technology Policy Institute’s Aspen Forum last month, Lumen and AT&T [executives said](https://broadbandbreakfast.com/ai-buildout-worsening-supply-costs-permit-worries-isps-say/) AI companies racing to connect data centers was putting pressure on ISP supply chains.