Uniti sets pace to pass 2.3M homes with fiber by the end of 2026
Key Highlights
- Uniti's Kinetic fiber network passed 1.9 million homes by year-end, with an aim to reach 2.3 million in 2026 and 3.5 million by 2029.
- The company added 28,000 net new fiber subscribers in Q4, ending with 535,000 total, and expects to grow this to 675,000–700,000 in 2026.
- Fiber penetration increased to 29%, and ARPU rose 5%, driven by more customers opting for gigabit and 2 Gbps speeds.
- Leadership enhancements include hiring former Verizon and Brightspeed executives to bolster fiber network development and execution.
- Despite a 5% decline in total revenue due to legacy service declines, fiber-related segments showed strong growth, with fiber expected to surpass legacy services by 2026.
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With its Windstream Kinetic fiber broadband assets fully in its pocket, Uniti has now set a path to enhance its reach into more homes throughout its footprint.
During the fourth quarter, Uniti’s Kinetic fiber network passed an additional 80,000 homes, bringing the year-end total to about 1.9 million homes passed with fiber.
John Harrobin, president of Kinetic, who joined Uniti last spring after leading Frontier’s consumer unit, said he is “pleased with the progress at Kinetic.”
“I mean, 80,000 is significantly up since our prior quarter, and among the highest quarters the company has ever delivered, and we expect that number to grow every single quarter throughout 2026,” he said. “We’re confident that we're on track for the 2.3 million at the end of 2026, which puts us at a little over [50%] fiberized in our entire network and well on track for the 3.5 million at the end of 2029.”
What’s making Harrobin confident about meeting these goals is that Uniti has bolstered his team with a new team with experience building large-scale fiber broadband networks. In December, Uniti named former Verizon and Brightspeed executives Manuel Sampedro as EVP and Chief Network Officer, and Bobby Walters as SVP of Kinetic Construction.
“The new team that came in on December 1 has years of experience building and managing fiber networks. I've had the privilege of working with Manny Sampedro at Verizon,” he said. “He and Bobby Walters came over from Brightspeed, where they built 1 million homes a year for the past two years.”
FTTH subscriber, ARPU gains
Uniti continued to see gains with Kinetic’s FTTH network build, reporting 13% year-over-year revenue growth in its core business.
During the fourth quarter, Kinetic added 28,000 net new fiber subscribers, ending the quarter with 535,000 total fiber subscribers, representing the highest level of net adds in almost three years, and total Kinetic fiber subscribers grew 20% from the prior year period.
Given the momentum it saw in 2025, Uniti expects to end the year with between 675,000 and 700,000 fiber subscribers. Likewise, Uniti forecasts $635 million to $655 million of consumer fiber revenue in 2026, up 25% to 30% from the prior year.
“Kinetic consumer fiber revenue grew 24% year-over-year during the quarter,” said Paul Bullington, CFO and treasurer of Uniti. “This growth is being driven by strong adoption of our fiber-to-the-home product, bolstered by the performance of the various marketing initiatives at Kinetic that target both our newer and more seasoned cohorts.”
Penetration levels in Uniti’s 2024 cohort now exceed year-two penetration rates in its older cohorts. “We expect to maintain or improve this trajectory, and the team is now focusing on executing the playbook to increase penetration among our older cohorts,” Bullington said.
Kinetic also saw gains in fiber penetration and APRU. Fiber penetration was 29% during the quarter, up 30 basis points sequentially and 150 basis points year-over-year, while ARPU rose 5% year-over-year.
One of the key factors that also influenced Kinetic's APRU gain during the fourth quarter was that more of its customers purchased its gigabit-speed products, including its 2 Gbps product, which it rolled out late last year.
“In the fourth quarter, we set a record in terms of the percentage of new customers taking big speeds,” Harrobin said. “We've also set a record for upgrading our base in the fourth quarter of existing customers, 2 gig-plus speed.”
However, Harrobin added that it sees an opportunity to entice more of its broadband customers to subscribe to gigabit-speed service. “As we sit here today, we have about 40% of our customer base on gig-plus speeds,” he said. “We know that we could upgrade 60% of them. And that's not counting the 1-gig customers we can upgrade to 2 gig.”
Weathering legacy to next-gen battles
Uniti may be making progress with its fiber plans, but the inevitable pull from the legacy TDM and copper business remains an issue during the quarter.
The service provider reported that fourth-quarter consolidated pro forma revenue declined about 5% year-over-year to $917.3 million, which reflected ongoing declines in legacy copper and TDM services and in Uniti Solutions.
While Uniti saw growth in Kinetic and Fiber Infrastructure, Uniti Solutions dipped during the quarter:
· Kinetic: Uniti’s Kinetic unit contributed $558.7 million in revenue and $246.6 million in contribution margin for the fourth quarter of 2025, achieving margins of approximately 44%. Kinetic’s net capital expenditure during the quarter was $238.6 million.
· Fiber Infrastructure: This segment contributed $210.5 million in revenue and $103.4 million in contribution margin for the fourth quarter of 2025, achieving margins of approximately 49%. Fiber Infrastructure’s net capital expenditures during the quarter were $43.4 million.
· Uniti Solutions: This segment, which sells cloud and enterprise services, contributed $196 million in revenue, down from $209.2 million, achieving margins of approximately 49%. Uniti Solutions’ net capital expenditure during the quarter was $7.7 million.
Despite the challenges that legacy declines had during the quarter, Bullington said that “top line growth in other parts of the business continues to be strong, with Fiber Infrastructure growing 6% year-over-year and Kinetic fiber-based revenue, inclusive of consumer and wholesale services, growing 16% year-over-year.”
He added that the growth patterns the company is seeing with fiber mean that “we expect fiber to overtake legacy services as the majority of our revenue by the end of 2026.”
Looking ahead, Uniti expects to see an uptick in revenues from Kinetic and Fiber Infrastructure 2026. Uniti forecasts Kinetic revenues of $2.15 billion and Fiber Infrastructure revenues of $975 million, with $700 million in Uniti Solutions revenue.
“While we expect revenue and EBITDA to continue to decline at a mid-teens pace over the year-over-year over the next few years, a crucial part of our strategy is to retain the most profitable portion of this business while winding down low-value legacy and TDM services,” Bullington said. “Altogether, we expect consolidated revenue and adjusted EBITDA of approximately $3.63 billion and $1.45 billion at the midpoint of our 2026 outlook, with consolidated net CapEx of about $1.4 billion.”
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Sean Buckley
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