Lightower Adds Philadelphia Depth

Yesterday the northeastern fiber operator Lightower announced plans to expand their network in the city of brotherly love and the fictional home of Rocky Balboa.  Yep, Philadelphia is getting some more new fiber, specifically downtown in the area surrounding Broad St., Market St., JFK Blvd. and Chestnut Ave. This makes two providers that are making moves in Philly, as tw telecom entered the market for the first time just last month.  

Lightower’s expansion projects lately have been further south in Virginia and Maryland, markets which they entered with the Sidera acquisition last year and which Sidera had itself been planning expansions in.  But Philadelphia was also a market that came with that acquisition, as Lightower’s previous southern border was in New Jersey.  And for Sidera it wasn’t that big a focus either, which makes Philadelphia easily the biggest city within Lightower’s current footprint that they don’t have a a terribly large metro presence in.

With the Sidera acquisition well in hand, I wonder when Lightower will make its next inorganic move.  Their private equity backers have been pretty opportunistic over the years when it comes to M&A.  In addition to the recent Sidera deal, over the years they’ve also acquired Keyspan Communications, Hudson Valley Datanet, Veroxity, Lexent Metro Connect, and Open Access.  There are several regional fiber operators in adjacent territories that could be a good fit, Lumos Networks and FirstLight Fiber.  I’d have included 24/7 Fiber Network in that list until Crown Castle’s recently announced deal there.

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Categories: Metro fiber