Scorecard needed to keep track of robust Merger & Acquisition activity

BOSTON, MA, April 26, 2018 –Vertical Systems Group’s 2017 U.S. Fiber Lit Buildings LEADERBOARD results are as follows (in rank order by number of fiber lit buildings): AT&T, Verizon, Spectrum Enterprise, CenturyLink, Comcast, Cox, Crown Castle Fiber, Zayo, Frontier and Altice USA. These ten retail and wholesale fiber providers each qualified for this benchmark with 10,000 or more on-net U.S. fiber lit commercial buildings as of year-end 2017.

Twelve companies qualified for the 2017 Fiber Lit Buildings Challenge Tier as follows (in alphabetical order): Cincinnati Bell, Cleareon, Cogent, Consolidated Communications, FiberLight, FirstLight, IFN, Logix Fiber Networks, Lumos Networks, Unite Private Networks, Uniti Fiber and Windstream. These fiber providers each qualified for the 2017 Challenge Tier with between 2,000 and 9,999 U.S. fiber lit commercial buildings.

“With fiber footprint expansion in the strategic plans of every major network service provider, we’re seeing a significant ramp up in new lit building deployments,” said Rosemary Cochran, principal of Vertical Systems Group. “Merger, acquisition and re-branding activity across the fiber provider landscape is so intense that it takes a scorecard to keep track. Nearly every one of this year’s Fiber LEADERBOARD and Challenge Tier companies has been impacted by one or more fiber-related transactions in the past year.”

Major transactions for 2017 Fiber Lit Buildings LEADERBOARD companies:

• Verizon (#2) acquired XO (2016 Challenge Tier)
• CenturyLink (#4) merged with Level 3 (#6 on 2016 LEADERBOARD)
• Crown Castle Fiber enters at #7 with the acquisition of Lightower (#8 on 2016 LEADERBOARD) and operations consolidation that included 2016 Challenge Tier companies, Sunesys and FiberNet Direct
• Zayo (#8) advances from #9 in 2016 with the acquisition of Electric Lightwave (2016 Challenge Tier)
• Frontier (#9) advances from #11 in 2016 with fiber assets acquired from Verizon

• Consolidated Communications acquired Fairpoint (2016 Challenge Tier)
• Uniti Fiber acquired Southern Light (2016 Challenge Tier)
• Entering the 2017 Challenge Tier: Logix Fiber Networks, moving up from the Market Players tier

Market Players includes all other fiber providers with fewer than 2,000 U.S. commercial fiber lit buildings. The 2017 Market Players tier includes more than two hundred metro, regional and other fiber providers, including the following companies (in alphabetical order): Alpheus, Armstrong, Atlantic Broadband, Axia, Birch, C Spire, Centracom, Conterra, CTS Telecom, DQE Communications, EnTouch Business, Fatbeam, Fusion Telecom, Google Fiber, GTT, Hawaiian Telecom, Hudson Fiber Network, Hunter Communications, Independents Fiber Network, Infostructure, LS Networks, Mediacom, MetroNet, Monmouth Telecom, Orca Communications, Pilot Fiber, PS Lightwave, Shentel Business, Silver Star Telecom, Spirit Communications, Syringa, TDS Telecom, TPX Communications, U.S. Signal, Veracity, WOW!Business and others.

For this analysis, a fiber lit building is defined as a commercial site or data center that has on-net optical fiber connectivity to a network provider’s infrastructure, plus active service termination equipment onsite. Excluded from this analysis are standalone cell towers, small cells not located in fiber lit buildings, near net buildings, buildings classified as coiled at curb or coiled in building, HFC-connected buildings, carrier central offices, residential buildings, and private or dark fiber installations.

Fiber LEADERBOARDs, the industry’s foremost benchmark for measuring market leadership, are powered by the results of Vertical Systems Group’s Fiber Lit Buildings analysis by fiber provider. Detailed metrics, fiber provider profiles, and analysis are available now exclusively to ENS Research Program subscribers of @Fiber Plus. Contact us for subscription information and pricing.