Lightpath Buys WANRack’s Phoenix Fiber

Two interesting metro fiber questions were answered this week by a bit of fiber M&A. Lightpath has announced the acquisition of WANRack’s business in Phoenix, Arizona.

It was just a week ago that Lightpath announced its entry into Phoenix. The 230-route-mile expansion project seemed to come out of nowhere, but clearly this is another shoe dropping. The acquisition will add WANRack’s 133 route miles of fiber, giving Lightpath some 363 route miles either in place or under construction and adding another 10 data centers on-net. This is Lightpath’s third move outside of its original NYC metro area turf, following buildouts in Boston and Miami in recent years.

Meanwhile, WANRack just announced a merger with St. Louis-based Gateway Fiber four weeks ago. The deal pairs WANRack’s e-Rate business with Gateway’s last mile to create a 25-state footprint. However, clearly not all of WANRack’s markets fit with that vision and the first we are learning about is Phoenix, and hence this sale. There may be other such markets, perhaps ones where WANRack built out an e-Rate project and there is already other FTTx investment at work that the combined Gateway/WANRack isn’t looking to directly challenge.  I suspect we will see a few more such deals as we move into spring as it all shakes out as they focus their efforts on the next phase.

But in Phoenix, Lightpath now has not just an expansion project but a functioning business with customers and diverse paths. Below is a map of the combined footprint they are putting together.

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Categories: FTTH · Mergers and Acquisitions · Metro fiber