EAST PEORIA — A St. Louis-based company plans to invest heavily in fiber optic infrastructure in the Peoria area after finalizing acquisition of a regional television, internet and phone service provider this week.

CountryWide Broadband announced the acquisition of iTV-3 in February and moved forward with installation of underground fiber optic cable to thousands of residences in North Peoria over the course of the summer while awaiting federal approval of the transfer of the company's Champaign operations.

That approval has not yet materialized, so the broadband acquisition and management firm started by four veterans of the telecommunications industry closed on the acquisition of the East Peoria-based operations first, according to Grier Raclin, president and chief operating officer of CountryWide.

"This area seems to be pretty hungry, whether it's for competition or better service," Raclin said. "Our focus is on growth and making it a smashing success and duplicating it elsewhere."

The acquisition is the first for CountryWide, which partnered with New York City-based private equity firm Seaport Capital to finance the venture. The iTV-3 service will be rebranded as i3 Broadband in the coming weeks as part of a marketing and sales push.

The company will retain the facility on High Point Lane in East Peoria and almost all the employees, while looking to hire additional installation, sales and other staff.

Raclin said the East Peoria facility could become the headquarters for other i3 Broadband operations across the country if the local effort proves successful.

"We're local and we're going to continue to be local," Raclin said.

CountryWide acquired a network of fiber optic cable that provides residences in Pekin, Morton, East Peoria and parts of Peoria with up to 1-gigabit connections for television, internet and digital telephone service. The company also offers business service.

The dominant provider for those types of services in the region is Comcast, which recently instituted a data usage cap for its Peoria area customers. CountryWide does not plan to impose similar limitations, Raclin said.

Plans for the 2017 construction season include building fiber optic connections to up to 20,000 more residences in Peoria, Raclin said. The network should be complete in five years.

The iTV-3 website at www.itv-3.com includes an interactive map to determine what addresses can currently access the service and a way to express interest in bringing the service to specific neighborhoods.

CountryWide also plans to offer additional cable television packages next year that include fewer channels at a reduced price to allow consumers to select and pay for channels they want, Raclin said.

Matt Buedel is the Journal Star business reporter. He can be reached at 686-3154 and mbuedel@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @JournoBuedel.