Wave Broadband snags $130M in funding to expand West Coast gigabit network

Wave Broadband, an independent provider of 1 Gbps broadband services to communities in Washington and California, has raised $130 million in new capital. The company plans to use the new funds to expand its network into more cities within its existing footprint and launch a set of new residential and business services. 

Sources of Wave's new financing for this expansion include a corporate bond sale led by Deutsche Bank and supported by Wells Fargo, Sun Trust and RBC Daniels.

This is the second time that Wave has sought funding since it began offering services in 2002. In the initial funding round, the company raised $1.1 billion from private equity firms GI Partners and Oak Hill Capital in 2012.

In Seattle, Portland and San Francisco, Wave will grow its Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) network by adding over 1,500 miles of fiber this year. Within California, the service provider will complete multiple redundant fiber rings between California markets including Concord, San Jose, Sacramento and San Francisco with virtual cross-connect services to multiple Bay Area data centers.

From a service perspective, it will extend gigabit internet service to an additional 10,000-plus residents this year in Seattle with plans to expand service into San Francisco and other markets in 2015 and into 2016. It will also introduce a suite of business services such as Hosted PBX and co-location facilities to its existing IP Transport, and virtual cross-connect products.

Finally, Wave will enhance its construction organization to support additional network expansion in West Coast California, Oregon and Washington markets, with hundreds of fiber build projects currently being planned, permitted and under construction.

Besides the network expansion, Wave has made two new executive appointments: promoting Steve Friedman to the new post of executive vice president of fiber design and construction and naming Harold Zeitz company president and COO.

Wave is a profitable company that's generating over $350 million in annual revenue. The company has also funded its own organic and inorganic growth initiatives, including 17 acquisitions of other regional broadband providers including Black Rock Cable, Spectrum Communications and some former Charter assets.  

According to a Tech Crunch article, Wave has over 420,000 customers. Out of that mix, 85 percent of its customer base is residential and the other 15 percent is businesses. Interestingly, the company said that its business customer base is growing at a rate of 25 percent while residential is growing at a rate of 10 percent.

For more:
- see the release
- Tech Crunch has this article

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This article was updated on May 22 to reflect the fact that Wave was never called Wave Dynamics.