Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. has completed the previously announced acquisition of T-Mobile’s Wireline Business. The price of the deal was not disclosed.
The acquisition, initially announced in September of 2022, calls for Cogent to buy T-Mobile’s wireline business, (formerly known as Sprint GMG) which was comprised of the long-haul fiber network assets that the company acquired when it merged with Sprint.
Before Sprint branched into the mobile market, it was one of the first companies to provide long-distance service in competition with AT&T, prior to AT&T’s breakup. Over the years Sprint expanded and upgraded its fiber network and branched into other wholesale and enterprise services.
Cogent had been formed in 1999 as a competitive fiber network operator and has since become one of the top providers of internet backbone connectivity and other wholesale and IP-centric services. The company regularly appears on various Leaderboard “challenger” lists prepared by Vertical Systems Group that measure market share for carrier Ethernet, fiber-lit buildings and other services.
At the time of the initial announcement, Cogent said it expected the T-Mobile wireline business to “complement and eventually replace Cogent’s current leased network” as well as enable Cogent to “expand its product set, including the sales of optical wave transport services to new and existing customers.”
Additionally, Cogent said it saw value in T-Mobile wireline’s customer base as well as in the employees supporting the network. According to the September release, those customers “are a fit for Cogent’s products and services” and the employees have the “knowledge and capabilities” to execute Cogent’s strategy.
Cogent also noted an opportunity to migrate T-Mobile’s wireline customers “from their legacy MPLS VPN solutions to modern Ethernet / VPLS or SD-WAN / DIA solutions for their corporate needs.”
Cogent said at the time the deal was announced that it would provide IP transit services to T-Mobile for 54 months following the closing date and that T-Mobile would pay Cogent $700 million for those services, with $350 million due in equal payments over the first 12 months after closing and $350 million due in equal payments over the remaining 42 months.