The Divide: LiveOak Fiber's Steve Smith on deployment milestones and preparing for BEAD

This episode features Steve Smith, chief revenue officer at LiveOak Fiber, a broadband provider launched in 2022 serving parts of Florida and Georgia.

We first had Smith on the podcast shortly after LiveOak's launch, when the company was targeting roughly 80,000 locations. Today, LiveOak has expanded internally and externally, and is now targeting "somewhere between 200,000-250,000 homes and businesses," according to Smith.

In this episode, we catch up on the company's progress and growth in the past two years, including LiveOak Fiber's recent milestones of completing 50% of its ongoing fiber construction projects in Florida and Georgia, as well as where and how the company hopes to participate in the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program (BEAD) and more.

Here are a few topics covered in this conversation:

For a lightly edited transcript, click the caption button on the podcast player.

Related:The Buildout: LiveOak Fiber network 50% complete in Georgia