Private equity can move faster on fiber deployments than government

The prospect of billions of dollars flowing to states from the Broadband Equity Access & Deployment (BEAD) program is causing private equity companies to also flood the market with investment funds for fiber. On a panel at the recent Connect(X) conference in New Orleans (LA), panelists were asked if private equity companies will compete for BEAD funds or if they will add to the overall investment in fiber. Two panelists — Jessica Koch, broadband program manager at Calix and Daniel D’Costa, principal within the Carrier and Reseller Vertical at Zayo — said that private equity will put up their own money. But they will look to partner with service providers who are applying for BEAD funds. In that way, service providers will be able to boost their business models by getting BEAD money as well as private funding. Zayo has already seen a lot of private equity companies coming into the space aggressively, including GI Partners, Blackstone and Macquarie. And D’Costa noted that private equity, by its very nature, can move much faster than government programs with all the red tape.