Bryan is the first MetroNet market in Texas. The city and the service provider announced that it will build an all-fiber gigabit speed symmetrical network.
Construction on the network is expected to start this autumn and customers are expected to start getting service in the spring of 2022. MetroNet says it will create a retail storefront in Bryan, hire local personnel and alert consumers on progress, including providing 30-day notice before construction starts.
MetroNet, which is based in Evanston, IN, builds fully fiber networks with data speeds that reach 10 Gbps. The company, which doesn’t offer long term contracts, expects to pass 1 million homes and businesses served in the near future. It provides services or is building networks in more than 100 communities across Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia and now Texas.
This MetroNet Texas expansion is one of many new markets the company has announced this spring. During the first week of April, the service provider and Hickory, NC. announced a project. The service provider will invest more than $36 million in that network.
The next week, MetroNet and Ankeny, Iowa announced a buildout agreement in which the service provider will invest more than $15 million in infrastructure for the city. Taxpayers will incur no costs, according to the release.
MetroNet also is expanding via acquisition. On July 1, 2020, the company acquired Jaguar Communications, a broadband provider that served Owatonna, Mankato, Rochester and other communities in Minnesota. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed at the time.
MetroNet acquired LightSpeed Fiber Communications, which served Lansing, Grand Rapids, Southfield, Huntington Woods and Ypsilanti, MI, in February 2019.
Last month, MetroNet said that KKR will join Oak Hill Capital as an investor. The deal is expected to close during the third quarter.
