TDS Broadband service is acquiring InterLinx Communications and its subsidiary Tonaquint Networks in Southern Utah, adding 170 miles of fiber to its network.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The deal is awaiting regulatory approvals at both the federal and local levels.
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All employees will be offered positions and encouraged to stay with TDS to support customers locally and helping advance the existing network throughout Utah. Employees from Tonaquint Networks, InterLinx and TDS will operate out of the current InterLinx office space in St. George, Utah.
By purchasing InterLinx and Tonaquint, TDS gains access to a larger set of fiber assets to more effectively serve its growing base of wholesale service provider and business customers.
InterLinx, which has been in business since 2003, provides wholesale fiber connections to businesses, as well as to local ISPs and large carriers. Tonaquint Networks provides residential and business services via FTTH and wireless internet technologies.
This acquisition could provide a boost to TDS’ wireline wholesale, residential broadband, and business segments.
On the consumer side, the acquisition could further deepen TDS Telecom’s FTTH footprint.
Similar to TDS Telecom’s Fiberville concept, Tonaquint has developed a program that allows neighborhoods to nominate themselves as the next destination to build out FTTH. For its own part, TDS has set a goal to reach approximately 22 percent of our ILEC service addresses.
Since InterLinx has built a sizeable middle mile network, TDS could use the network to potentially further its own wireline wholesale business. In the third quarter, TDS reported that wholesale revenues declined slightly year-over-year to $43 million.
While this isn’t the largest purchase TDS has made, the acquisition comes at a time when there’s been a wave of rapid consolidation in the wireline industry, which illustrates the growing demand for fiber facilities.