Dragonfly Spreads Its Wings to Florida

Alabama-based Dragonfly Internet is a relatively new service provider but traces back its leadership and experience roots to owner ITC Holding Company, LLC, a venture and management firm with decades of involvement in wireline, cellular, and internet service providers. 

“We’ve been in business since the fall of 2023,” said Dragonfly CEO and Board Member David Hartin. “Our thesis was to find [Wireless Internet Service providers] because you can buy them at a good value that are in areas that have grant eligibility around them and are good pockets of places to build. We landed in Monroeville, Alabama, and bought a small WISP with around 300 customers.” 

In the months that followed, the new Dragonfly shored up the existing wireless infrastructure with modern equipment to “get the network stable” while starting work on bringing in fiber, with construction starting in earnest in the middle of 2025. A partnership with Alabama Fiber Network/Alabama Power (AFN) to leverage its middle mile fiber deployments and BEAD funding will enable Dragonfly to place fiber deeply into three Alabama counties in the months ahead.  

“We are going into rural areas and becoming the local broadband provider,” said Butch Brock, Chief Strategy Officer. “We open storefronts, we hire locally and become the local guy. Some of the big [providers] in these small markets have withdrawn, not spending any capital or keeping many local employees in the market.”

Fixed wireless and fiber are not competitive, but complementary, as Dragonfly and other FBA members have found. Source: Dragonfly Internet

Hiring local, sponsoring the local T-ball teams, and participating in the annual Christmas parade means Dragonfly is able to connect and build sustainable relationships with its customers and the communities it serves. Other engagement strategies the company uses include sponsoring school activities and giving back a portion of installation fees to parent-teacher organizations, so they spend it on the projects they want.  

Rural Alabama is a relatively new market for high-speed broadband, so Dragonfly has invested in educating consumers on how services can be used, as well as providing malware protection and parental controls as a part of its services package. Streaming support proved to be a requirement so households could get access to football and the local houses of worship could get online. “We’re in the area where all the churches want to stream on Facebook,” said Brock. “They want reliable connectivity so they can stream Sunday services.”  

Other business voice services became of interest once people became familiar with fiber services. “People learn fast,” said Royce Ard, Executive Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Dragonfly. “A few years ago, we were talking about the difference between YouTube TV and Hulu. Now we’re beyond that and people have questions about hosted PBX.” 

Local businesses that first tapped into Dragonfly for wireless backup have migrated to the company for primary service once it had fiber available, including local franchises such as car dealerships, regional shopping hubs, agricultural supply, and national truck stops. “Our penetration rate in downtown Monroeville, a traditional southern town with the town square and a courthouse in the center is way above 50%,” said Ard. “We serve almost every business on the square.”  

Acquiring Myakka Communications, a fiber optic provider in Manatee and Sarasota Counties in Western Florida proved to be a different mindset from Alabama, but the firm had a similar outlook on being an integral part of the community and providing exemplary customer service.

Dragonfly acquisition Myakka Communications has been deploying fiber across rural Western Florida to bring “broadband to the boonies” since 2010. Today, new housing projects are replacing farms and making fiber a much more valuable commodity. Source; Dragonfly Internet

Myakka also started out as a fixed wireless provider in 2001, with its first fiber deployment taking place in 2010. The company initially started deploying fiber to 5 acre or greater lots, bringing “broadband to the boonies” as it steadily moved eastward with fiber, following the flow of economic development in the area. New housing projects meant new opportunities, with Myakka connecting around 5,400 households by the time Dragonfly purchased the firm in December 2025. 

“Our Florida region is a more mature market for us,” said Ard. “The competition offers things like cameras and security systems. We may do those kinds of services because we have people requesting it.” Dragonfly also expects more customers through density, as builders move from larger properties and into townhomes and multi-tenant developments in the area. 

Growth in Florida will happen in parallel with construction in Alabama as Dragonfly starts building out its BEAD commitments in the state. The nearly $58 million through the state is being matched by close to $27 million in private capital investment and $6.5 million from AFN, covering most of the three counties’ locations with fiber.  

Future expansion could come through acquisitions as well as continued organic growth, but Dragonfly is disciplined in their approach in no rush on that front. “I like to say we’re well funded, but our investors make us earn it,” said Hartin. “Every time we have a new project like Myakka in Florida, I’ve got to go shake the bushes and raise the capital. But that keeps us honest, so it makes sense.” 

Hartin expects the combination of high-speed wireless and fiber to continue to be a winning strategy, since Dragonfly is combining the strengths of both as it moves forward. “Obviously, fiber will call the higher multiples and is more future proof, but we can put in wireless a lot faster and start generating revenue while we’re building [fiber] street by street,” said Hartin. “They can be complementary.”