Uniti CEO says it’s on track to pass 3.5M homes with fiber by 2029

Fresh off its acquisition of Windstream, Uniti is hot on the trail of a plan to accelerate its fiber investment with plans to reach over 3 million locations by the end of the decade.

Speaking to investors during its second-quarter earnings call, Kenny Gunderman, CEO of Uniti, said that it is dedicated to converting more of its markets from copper to fiber.

“We expect to pass 3.5 million homes with fiber within the Kinetic footprint by the end of 2029, and we have no plans of stopping there,” he said. “We also expect that about 75% of our total revenue will be fiber-based by 2029, and the conversion to fiber will further fuel the substantial core fiber revenue and EBITDA growth we saw during the second quarter.”

Fiber broadband thesis

Uniti sees its merger with Windstream as proof that fiber creates a broadband growth platform.

Since it announced the deal with Windstream last May, three of the largest service providers--AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile--have made large-scale fiber expansion deals via key acquisitions.

AT&T bolstered its aggressive build-out plans by reaching a deal to acquire Lumen’s consumer fiber business, while Verizon inked an agreement for Frontier. Meanwhile, T-Mobile, through a joint venture with EQT, the wireless operator is acquiring Lumos Networks for $1 billion to bring services to 2 million homes in underserved markets by 2026.  

Gunderman said these deals show how fiber remains the connective tissue for current and future broadband delivery.

“Since our announcement, for example, three of the largest wireless carriers in North America have begun investing heavily in fiber-to-the-home, and we believe that investment will continue,” he said. “With Kinetic, we own one of the most strategic independent fiber-to-the-home platforms remaining. And with a focus on Tier 2 and 3 markets, our footprint has a substantial first-mover advantage in fiber.”

Additionally, Gunderman sees upside from the FCC’s relaxed stance on copper retirement.

Last March, the FCC took an initial set of actions to accelerate the transition from aging copper lines to modern network infrastructure. Among some of the actions the FCC took are enabling providers like Uniti to use streamlined procedures more often when they apply to discontinue copper lines.

“We've seen a material improvement in the regulatory backdrop for fiber providers, including copper-to-fiber conversions. The FCC has taken a much more commercially favorable position towards copper retirement and a more business-friendly view of communications regulations in general. Many of our state PUCs are following their lead.”

Scaling consumer fiber reach and revenue

During the second quarter, Kinetic continued to make progress with network and customer expansions.

It extended its fiber network to pass an additional 52,000 homes with fiber, ending the quarter with 1.7 million homes passed.

Also saw growth on the subscriber side, adding 19,000 new customers during the second quarter. The provider ended the quarter with 483,000 total fiber subscribers, up 15% from the same period in 2024.

Total fiber revenue for Uniti and Windstream increased 10% year-over-year during the second quarter to $126 million, with Kinetic consumer fiber revenue alone growing 27%, which the company said is consistent with the growth rate it has seen for multiple quarters.

Paul Bullington, CFO of Uniti, said the fiber growth is “being driven by strong adoption of our fiber-to-the-home product, bolstered by the performance of our Fiber Fast Start and Fiber Forward initiatives at Kinetic that target our newer and more seasoned cohorts, respectively.”

But the service provider is not stopping here. It expects to continue to scale its fiber reach, aiming to reach 2 million homes passed with fiber by the end of the year, and achieve 45% fiber coverage within the Kinetic footprint.

Also, it forecasts it will reach 530,000 fiber subscribers and realize approximately $500 million of consumer fiber revenue in 2025, up roughly 25% from the prior year.

While Kinetic’s cost per passing has historically been about $650, Bullington said the company expects that cost to rise, but emphasized it is in line with the industry.

“As we push fiber deeper into the Kinetic footprint and shift our construction mix to using more external crews, we expect the strategic cost per passing to increase, but to still compare very favorably to industry benchmarks,” he said. “We estimate cost per passing going forward will likely be in the $850 to $950 range, giving us a blended cost of $750 to $850 per passing over the life of the fiber build program.”

Lease and fiber drive revenue growth

During the second quarter, Uniti’s revenue growth was driven by increases in its Uniti Fiber and Uniti Leasing segments.

Uniti Fiber contributed $74.3 million of revenues and $28.8 million of adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter of 2025. Uniti Fiber’s net success-based capital expenditure during the quarter was $20.6 million.

Uniti Leasing contributed revenues of $226.5 million and Adjusted EBITDA of $220.1 million for the second quarter. Uniti Leasing’s net success-based capital expenditure during the quarter was $1.8 million.

Consolidated revenues for the second quarter of 2025 were $301 million.

“We saw another quarter of solid results at Uniti and continue to execute on our priorities successfully, as we set out earlier this year,” Gunderman said. “Our core recurring strategic fiber revenue grew approximately 5% in the second quarter of 2025 when compared to the second quarter of 2024, consolidated bookings were consistent with levels in recent quarters, and the capital intensity of our fiber business continues to become more efficient.”

Looking forward to the rest of 2025, Uniti’s outlook will consider the consolidation of Windstream’s expected results for the five months following the closing of the Merger on August 1, 2025.

The company said it expects the Windstream deal to “contribute additional revenues and Adjusted EBITDA of approximately $1.0 billion and $160 million, respectively, during such period.”

For the full year, Windstream has forecast total revenues of $2.2 billion.

Uniti said its “2025 outlook is based on management’s current expectations and beliefs but is subject to change as we continue the integration of Windstream and Legacy Uniti.”

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