Ziply Fiber bolsters business fiber capabilities with UPN Pacific Northwest acquisition
Ziply Fiber is on the growth hunt again for its business segment, reaching a deal to acquire the Pacific Northwest assets of Unite Private Networks (UPN), a Kansas City-area provider of fiber communications infrastructure services to schools, governments, carriers, data centers, hospitals, and enterprise business customers.
Cox Communications previously purchased UPN and has merged with Cox-owned SEGRA, but Ziply said it is known as UPN for this transaction.
Unsurprisingly, the big attraction to Ziply is the fiber assets it will gain.
Ziply Fiber will acquire UPN’s fiber assets, network, and customers in Washington, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. The company will add more than 7,000 fiber miles across critical cities, including Puyallup and Silverdale, Wash.; Homedale, Idaho; Columbia Falls, Havre, and Miles City, Montana; and Sheridan, Wyoming. It will provide its customers with various lit and dark fiber services and other commercial solutions.
Harold Zeitz, CEO of Ziply Fiber, said the deal reflects its desire to enhance its business service reach and residential fiber broadband play. Ziply’s acquisition of the UPN assets comes as Canadian-based BCE announced a deal to acquire the competitive provider to gain a foothold in the U.S. broadband market.
“Expanding our commercial footprint in the Northwest has been a priority for us this year, and it’s a win-win to be able to do that while also adding new territory that can help us as we continue to look at edge-out markets on the residential side of our business,” he said.
Once the acquisition is complete, Ziply Fiber will be able to offer a variety of additional commercial fiber services on its network, including 100G wavelength, 400G wavelength, 10 and 100G IP transit, 10G ethernet, dark fiber, cloud on-ramps, IP transit and peering, metro and long-haul routes and other services.
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About the Author
Sean BuckleySean Buckley
Sean is the Editor-in-Chief of Lightwave. He establishes and executes Lightwave's editorial strategy across its website, email newsletters, events, and other information products. Before coming to Lightwave in July 2023, he served as editor of Broadband Communities. Earlier, he served as senior editor of FierceTelecom and the editor of the former Telecommunications Magazine. He got his start in the optical industry in 1998 when he became the editor of enterprise and optical networks at Information Gatekeepers. He has a BA in English from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and lives in Dracut, Mass, with his wife, two sons, and his cat, Dove.
