Metronet, one of the fastest-growing pure fibre players in the US, covers more than 2 million premises across 17 different states.
Metronet’s founder John Cinelli will maintain a minority stake in the joint venture, as will Oak Hill Capital, an asset management firm that will sell and buy back a portion of its stake to KKR and T-Mobile.
Following the transaction’s close, Metronet will become a wholesale services provider for its retail customers and 100% of its residential fibre retail operations and customers will transition to T-Mobile.
T-Mobile will have full responsibility for residential customer acquisition and support and will aim to use Metronet’s infrastructure to boost its coverage.
Metronet will focus on build plans, network engineering and design, network deployment, and customer installation.
Following the transaction close, Metronet is expected to be self-funding on a go forward basis and it is expected to reach 6.5 million homes passed by the end of 2030.
To support this business plan T-Mobile said it does not expect to make any additional capital contributions to the joint venture.
“This is a unique opportunity and a smart, capital-efficient deal that enables T-Mobile to profitably build on our success in broadband and provide fast, affordable and reliable connectivity options to millions more customers nationwide as a complement to our wireless growth strategy,” said Mike Sievert, CEO of T-Mobile.
“Metronet is the perfect partner for T-Mobile as a leader in fibre solutions with an incredibly fast build pace, and a top-notch management team. Together with KKR’s strong heritage of corporate partnership and global fibre franchise, we will further expand the Un-carrier’s fibre footprint and deliver real value and choice to customers while addressing a growing demand for fast and reliable broadband."
