Greenlight Networks says it is getting a jump on its efforts to expand in the Rochester area with the help of a new joint venture. WXXI’s Randy Gorbman has more:

Greenlight Networks says it is getting a jump on its efforts to expand in the Rochester area with the help of a new joint venture.

The relatively new player in the high-speed broadband arena locally says that it has joined forces with LeChase Construction Services, to ramp up the expansion of Greenlight’s network in this area. The joint venture is called Greenlight LeChase and the companies say it will significantly accelerate the construction of Greenlight's fiber optic network in Rochester and across upstate New York.

Greenlight President and CEO Mark Murphy says that LeChase will help speed up the buildout of the Greenlight infrastructure to help the broadband company meet demand.

“Despite the fact that people love everything about Greenlight in terms of the speed and in terms of the choice, the one thing they don’t love is that we’re not at their house now. And we’ve got a lot of customer demand, we’ve got several thousand customers that are waiting to get our service,” Murphy said.

LeChase president Will Mack says his company has the construction and planning expertise to help Greenlight accomplish that task.

“From a planning standpoint, from a scheduling standpoint, a permitting standpoint, all the logistics that have to occur to get into the neighborhoods that we plan to do is really the footprint and what we do,” Mack said at a Tuesday afternoon news conference.

Murphy said that the goal is for Greenlight to reach 230,000 homes in upstate NY in about three years.

Greenlight is expanding in several area towns, but there are still a number of areas that don’t have service yet including in the City of Rochester. Murphy indicated that technical and other requirements may have slowed the build-out in Rochester to some extent, but he says Greenlight is working on agreements to help it expand in the city more cost effectively.

Charter/Spectrum is the big player in cable and broadband in much of New York state, but it has faced increased competition in the broadband arena.

When asked for comment on the Greenlight expansion, Charter/Spectrum spokeswoman Lara Prtichard said that, “We agree consumers should have access to faster internet speeds. That’s why we’ve offered gigabit connections to residents and small businesses across the Rochester area for almost a year and a half. Spectrum’s advanced hybrid fiber-coaxial network is widely available across the Rochester area and has the capacity and bandwidth to meet consumer demands, today and into the future.” She said the company welcomes competition.

Greenlight Networks began several years ago, but got a big boost in 2018 when Paychex founder and philanthropist Tom Golisano acquired the company.