LiveOak Fiber Drives Broadband Deployment in Northwest Florida

LiveOak Fiber, a regional broadband provider, is excited to announce that the company’s Northwest Florida fiber network deployment is nearly halfway complete and is already providing broadband services to thousands of residential and business customers.

When fully completed, the FTTP network is expected to serve nearly 200,000 passings throughout the Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin metropolitan statistical area and throughout Okaloosa, Walton, Bay, and Santa Rosa Counties.

To date, LiveOak has invested over $145 Million in constructing a new and competitive fiber optic network system to better serve residents and businesses throughout the Southeast.

“We are proud of the progress that we are making on our network deployment and our customers continue to give us positive feedback about their service and installation experience,” comments Jody Craft, President and CEO of LiveOak. “Our commitment to the local markets we serve is truly being realized and local supporters see that we deliver on our promises.”

One of LiveOak’s key commitments in coming to Northwest Florida was to hire locally to ensure the benefits of a local company working for the community it serves. LiveOak is fulfilling its promise by hiring over 100 local employees and working closely with community stakeholders.

This dedication to the community has earned LiveOak recognition throughout the region. In May of 2023, LiveOak was awarded a grant from the Florida Broadband Opportunity Program to connect residents in Valparaiso, FL, and is currently constructing and connecting customers there. So far in 2024, LiveOak was awarded Best in Destin, according to VIP Destin Magazine; and was named the Business of the Year from the Greater Fort Walton Beach Chamber of Commerce. LiveOak has also leveraged Okaloosa County’s fiber middle mile network to reach thousands of additional homes and businesses.

Lastly, at the recent March 2024 One Okaloosa Business Leadership Council meeting, the results of the Milken Institute Best Performing Cities 2024 report were discussed regarding the Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin MSA and LiveOak was recognized as being the key reason of moving the area forward from a broadband ranking of #182 in 2023 to #23 in 2024.

The LiveOak Fiber internet service coverage map features the company’s live and in progress network routes and offers consumers the opportunity to check for internet availability and to request services through this link.

LiveOak Fiber is building a world-class fiber network to deliver fast and reliable broadband to homes and businesses. The company is committed to investing in the communities they serve by delivering modern digital infrastructure needed to improve the quality of life and drive economic growth.