MetroNet has acquired CTS, a fiber-based Internet provider that serves the southwest Michigan communities of Battle Creek, Kalamazoo, Portage, Texas Township and Climax. The new owners plan to invest more than $100 million to expand the network.
No details of the acquisition were released. CTS will “fully integrate” under the MetroNet brand in the coming months and will provide its full product line features next year.
CTS, originally known as Climax Telephone Company, traces its history back more than 100 years. Today the company provides broadband at speeds up to 1 Gbps symmetrical.
MetroNet has all-fiber networks in more than 120 communities across Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Texas, Wisconsin and Missouri, in addition to Michigan.
“CTS shares our values and our desire to bring customer-focused, fiber-optic telecommunication services to homes and businesses throughout the communities we serve,” MetroNet CEO John Cinelli said in a press release. “The Great Lake State deserves access to a future-proofed network that provides reliable, high-speed service and expands economic development potential. By building on what CTS has already accomplished, we will bring that reality for the people and businesses that make up Michigan.”
This is the fourth announcement by MetroNet in about the last month. Earlier this month, the fast moving fiber overbuilder announced its first Missouri market of O’Fallon.
Late last month, MetroNet said it will build, a fiber network in and around Tyler, TX. MetroNet will fully fund the project, its third in the Lone Star State. Construction will begin the autumn and service will be available next spring.
In mid-August, MetroNet said it will invest as much as $15 million in a network in Beavercreek, OH. The project is MetroNet’s eleventh in the state.
A week earlier, the all fiber provider announced that its twelfth project in Wisconsin would be in LaCrosse. The company will invest $12 million to $15 million in the project.
