Crown Castle to acquire Quanta Fiber for $1 Billion

Crown Castle is acquiring Quanta Fiber (called Sunesys), a subsidiary of Quanta Services, for about $1 billion in cash, a deal that will immediately bolster the wireless tower company's dark fiber capabilities for small cell backhaul services. A big element of this deal for Crown Castle is the fiber footprint to serve small cell backhaul deployments being carried out by major wireless operators in a number of key cities in the United States. By gaining access to Sunesys' dark fiber capabilities, Crown Castle will be able to address Verizon Wireless' desire to have these solutions for its macro cell and small cell deployments.

While other large operators have yet to join them, Verizon Wireless has been mandating that its backhaul partners deliver a dark fiber backhaul solution. Ben Moreland, CEO and president of Crown Castle, said that by acquiring Sunesys, the company will have fiber assets that could potentially serve more than 3,500 small cell opportunities. Sunesys currently owns or has rights to nearly 10,000 miles of fiber in major metro markets across the United States, including Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago, Atlanta, Silicon Valley and northern New Jersey. About 60 percent of Sunesys' fiber miles are located in the top 10 basic trading areas.