PEG Buys a Fiber Network From Gore

PEG Bandwidth has found an inorganic way to grow its network in the MidAtlantic. This morning they announced an asset acquisition, purchasing a 48-mile fiber network from W.L. Gore & Associates.  Gore & Associates, among other things, is the company that makes GORE-TEX fabric and is the source of wealth for Delaware’s current richest resident, Bob Gore.

PEG has been busy building out its wireless backhaul network in the MidAtlantic for a couple years now, with fiber from Albany NY down to Danville VA. The fiber purchased from Gore lies along their intercity route along the I-95 corridor between Wilmington and Baltimore. It’s 3,500-fiber-mile metro network in the suburban triangle connecting Newark, Delaware with Elkton and Fair Hill, Maryland with 22 buildings on-net.

If you’re wondering what GORE-TEX was doing in the fiber business, you’re probably not alone. But it looks like this grew out of a network built between Gore & Associates locations and reaching out into the surrounding community to sites like the University of Delaware, perhaps because the area wasn’t getting fiber from elsewhere fast enough for the company’s liking at the time.

For PEG, the acquisition gives them a significant jumpstart in serving the same area. They’ll probably be using it to start hooking up wireless towers in the region, adding to the nearly 3,000 they’ve brought on-net in the past 5 years. But I note that the PR talks about hooking up more businesses to data centers, which suggests that PEG starting to look beyond the fiber-to-the-tower markets as well.  It also shows that PEG is out there actively looking for fiber M&A opportunities to complement their organic efforts.

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Categories: Mergers and Acquisitions · Metro fiber