Bringing world-class broadband inside the military fence line

Well, good morning, everybody

We're going to go ahead and get started on our ceremony. My name is Louis Eastman, and I had the fortunate opportunity to spend 30 years in the Army

and I work for Bolden Networks. Bolden is one of the largest infrastructure providers in the world

trusted with some of the most critical infrastructure globally, Things like in the United States, T-Mobile Arena, large venues, staff systems, Lakers, Churchill Downs, the 9-11 Museum

We do things like provide communication networks on transit systems in New York

Today, what we're going to talk about is what we call our military vertical, which I'm very proud to discuss today

And that is our team that works strictly inside the military fence line on all branches of service

It's super important to provide the state-of-the-art broadband systems inside the fence line

What I mean by that is we want to have the same service that's provided to every civilian

that doesn't work on the military base outside. We want to mirror that, if not better, for the soldiers and sailors and airmen that work

inside the fence line. At Fort Gordon, Georgia, we're providing fiber to over 1,000 homes, seven neighborhoods

and we have put in over 18 and a half miles of fiber and duct

creating that foundation to have a base of the future. How this service is making a difference in day-to-day life

on military installations it allows soldiers and family members and children to do things like remote schooling telework from home video conferences You know these are things that

are absolute in today's day and age. I mean, COVID brought a lot back to the United States

when it came over here. And what it did is it woke up our senior leaders to say that if folks are

going to live in military houses on the installation, they must have this type of service

I live here at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the center of the universe, right? And when COVID happened, people had to get in their cars and leave the installation to drive to a house in Fayetteville, North Carolina, so their kids can go to school

They couldn't even do it from their home. And so it's time to upgrade them, and now we're doing it

So I'm very happy about it. Having fiber in there here on base has changed my life tremendously

tremendously. I have a son that's stationed out in California and then I have a 17-year-old that's

here who loves the game of course after school and work and then I also have a seven-year-old

who's on her tablet. So throughout the day when you have everyone trying to use that source at

one time it truly helps that you everyone is able to stay connected

It comes down to all your life. It comes down to making everybody comfortable

So there's six of us. You know, there's two adults and there's four kids. So you have the gaming, you have, you know

everybody's on the internet on the weekends. There's just a lot going on. And the fact that we're able to all be on the internet

at one time, everything just be at a great speed and great reliability, it's just

it's been a game changer for us. The stories coming back from the family members and soldiers that are living on Fort Gordon are remarkable and you know somewhat expected Just a few months ago I was talking to a young

sergeant and he told me that he heard about the project just in time because without this project

going in to provide the internet service that is required in today's day and age, he was planning

on moving off the installation. And you know, as a leader in the military, we want our soldiers and

family members living on post where we call a safe and secure environment

Making this project a success took teamwork. There are many organizations that worked with Bolden to

do this. One is the Army Air Force Exchange Service. We are one of three AFES partners and

very proud of that. The other one is Providence Homes, the housing partner. Working with the

housing partner every day to complete the project on time made things a lot easier for everybody

And the last one is our internet provider, eCommunities, been a super partner to get the job done

Well, we're super excited for Fort Gordon to be the first recipient of the Connected Base Award

Some of the criteria that we looked at when we went to identify Fort Gordon to be the first is mission alignment

community impact, innovation and scalability, partnership and collaboration, and obviously execution and results

The Connected Base Award recognizes individuals on the base and organizations that go beyond the call

The people that put in the extra effort to make this project a success

This is what the award's about, people that go beyond just the average

No one wants to be average, and what y'all have done here at Fort Gordon

and y a southern word is set the standard for others to follow The ability to recognize people for the work they do is super important There many times in military organizations

that you only hear the negative. Now it's time to recognize excellence

Although we're complete with a thousand homes at Fort Gordon, I would just like to say that this project wasn't easy

It took a team to get this work done. Some of the team members I mentioned

whether it was AFI's, our internet provider, the housing partners, it took a team every day

both oars in the water, stroking in the right direction to make this a total success

Fort Gordon plans to leverage the fiber infrastructure, not only with fiber to the home

but other state of art businesses in and around the installation. Places like Starbucks, Burger King, gas stations, AFI shopping centers

Other installations that Bolden's currently working on for fiber-to-the-home projects are locations like Fort Bliss, over 5,000 homes, Joint Base San Antonio

and numerous other military installations. We here at Bolden Networks are very proud of the work that we're doing on military installations

Providing service to some of the best people serving our country is our charter

providing them a quality of life that's unmatched, providing them readiness that makes them ready to go at all times

does our hearts good. And we look forward to coming to a base near you

to make your base a base of the future