Consolidated Communications announced today that it is selling its Kansas City area network to funds managed by Alinda Capital Partners, a specialist in digital infrastructure.
Consolidated’s Kansas City operations consist of a DOCSIS 3.1 powered network that serves 19,000 consumer subscribers, 13,000 consumer broadband subscribers, and 1,900 commercial subscribers, according to the company.
This Kansas City area network came to Consolidated as a result of its SureWest acquisition just about a decade ago. On today’s 4Q21 conference call, Consolidated reports it expects the sale to generate $90 million in cash upon closing in 3Q22.
“We are excited about empowering an experienced management team and dedicated employees in Kansas City to deliver broadband and network solutions to residential, commercial and carrier customers in Kansas City,” said Jim Metcalfe, managing partner at Alinda in a press release about the Consolidated Kansas City news. “Our mission is to deliver first class service to customers through a locally headquartered and operated company by investing in people, systems, service and the community.”
A Consolidated spokesperson confirmed with Telecompetitor that a transition service agreement will be put in place “[w]here Consolidated will provide support and services for a period of time post sale.”
Alinda Capital Partners will eventually rebrand these operations.
“Yes we will introduce a new brand, but not until after the transaction has closed and regulatory approvals have been obtained,” an Alinda spokesperson tells Telecompetitor in response to emailed questions. “We anticipate this will take up to 6 months. A new brand will be announced thereafter.”
Fiber First
Consolidated is on a path to a fiber first future, introducing a new Fidium Fiber brand late last year. In that regard, a DOCSIS 3.1 network is a bit of an outlier. The company expects to reach 1.6 million fiber passings by 2025, which represents 70% of the company’s footprint.
Consolidated expects fiber passings to reach close to 40% of homes passed by the end of 2022. It reached 22% at the end of 2021, reaching 606K locations, with 330K new passings during the year. The company added 4,500 net new broadband subscribers in 4Q21.
Consolidated also unloaded some Ohio network assets to Hanson Communications earlier this year.
