Ontario & Trumansburg Telephone Companies (OTTC) says it has been acquired by an entity of Oak Hill Capital for an undisclosed amount. The deal will see OTTC expand its fiber to the home (FTTH) footprint in upstate New York via the creation of a new division, Upstate Fiber Networks, which will launch by providing FTTH based broadband services within the Finger Lakes region of the state.
The transaction, first revealed this past October, is the second time OTTC has consummated a purchase agreement with Oak Hill. OTTC sold subsidiary Finger Lakes Technologies Group, which operated a 3,000-mile fiber network across Upstate New York that serves enterprise customers, to Oak Hill's FirstLight Fiber in 2017 (see "FirstLight to buy Finger Lakes Technologies Group for NY, PA expansion"). “In our previous partnership, we were very impressed by OTTC’s family leadership team and their commitment to enhancing fiber communications for local businesses in Upstate NY,” stated Scott Baker and Benjy Diesbach, partners at Oak Hill. “With this new partnership, we are excited to offer state-of-the art, fiber-to-the-home connectivity to residential customers throughout the region.”
“Partnering with Oak Hill has positioned us for accelerated growth and geographic expansion, providing our customers with reliable service and high-speed connectivity, without compromising our core principles of community values and quality service,” added Paul Griswold, president of OTTC and UFN. “We are excited for the opportunity to bring high-speed internet connectivity to customers beyond our current established market. As we continue to navigate remote work and online education, we remain committed to providing our customers with reliable, high-speed connectivity and quality service.”
UFN, which is registered as a CLEC, will start construction of new FTTH infrastructure this month in the communities of Waterloo, Seneca Falls, and Geneva, NY. Brendan Griswold, Paul’s son, has been named manager of solutions development and project management at UFN after having served most recently as solutions development manager at OTTC.
Founded in 1920 and family led through five generations, OTTC and its subsidiaries provide phone and internet services to more than 12,000 residential and business customers in New York state. Paul Griswold received the FTTXcellence Award, presented each year by Corning and Lightwave to recognize achievements in optical access in the Americas, in 2019 (see “Paul Griswold named 2019 FTTXcellence Award recipient”).
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