Underserved broadband markets aren’t confined by borders. They exist in developing countries in South America, the Caribbean, the farmlands of the Midwest and southwestern deserts of the United States, the Navajo nation and Alaska – to name a few. They are also in rural New Hampshire.

“The common theme among those is very difficult locations to serve,” said Josh Holbrook, the Co-op’s Chief Broadband Officer, who has delivered fiber internet service to all of those aforementioned hard-to-reach places and now is in charge of bringing NH Broadband to underserved areas in the state.

“There were big swaths of New Hampshire just being ignored by the major providers. People couldn’t get high speed internet. Geography should never limit access to opportunity. And once again, the Co-op stepped in and stepped up to bring that infrastructure to people,” said Josh, noting the comparison to the Co-op’s original mission to bring electricity to rural New Hampshire communities. “To me it seems a very natural evolution and I’m really proud of what the Co-op is doing to serve New Hampshire.”

After 20 years of experience in the telecom industry and 10 years working with fiber in underserved markets across the Western Hemisphere, Josh understands rugged terrain and the unique challenges it presents in reaching under- and unserved areas. The added work and expense of serving these areas with fiber is worth it because of the immediate improvement it provides individuals and communities through its superior speed and reliability. Fiber is a vast improvement over cable and other legacy internet services.

Cable is a shared network, which means all the homes in the neighborhood share the same bandwidth. The more people in the community using the internet, the slower the speeds users will enjoy. It’s like a highway congested with cars. Fiber is more like a jet plane – it doesn’t get caught in traffic. Fiber delivers dedicated bandwidth to homes and businesses; it isn’t impacted by what your neighbors are doing. It also has the benefit of being a much newer and more reliable technology. It has fewer outages.

NH Broadband’s service is 100 percent fiber, which is “very unique relative to our competitors. We deliver faster speeds and greater reliability. Our goal is to provide simplicity and transparency. We’re not cramming big bundles down someone’s throat,” Josh said.

Be on the lookout as NH Broadband continues to roll out in more communities in 2026, including Alton, Sunapee and Bartlett.