T-Mobile has entered into a joint venture with infrastructure investor EQT to acquire Lumos from a fund already managed by EQT.
Lumos provides full fibre internet, home Wi-Fi, voice and streaming services to 320,000 homes with a focus on the markets of Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
Following the acquisition it will pivot to a wholesale fibre provider, with T-Mobile acting as the anchor tenant on its network, which covers 7,500 route miles.
The joint venture will bring T-Mobile’s retail, marketing, brand and customer experience strengths together with EQT’s fibre infrastructure investment expertise, the two companies said.
T-Mobile will take over customer relationships and plans to use its brand to grow subscriber count on the network.
It will pay approximately $950 million in the JV to acquire a 50% equity stake and all existing fibre customers once the deal closes in late 2024 or early 2025.
Following this initial investment, T-Mobile will commit and additional $500 million in 2027 or 2028.
"As the demand for reliable, low-latency connectivity rapidly increases, this deal is a scalable strategy for T-Mobile to take a significant step forward in expanding on our broadband success and continue shaking up competition in this space to bring even more value and choice to consumers,” said Mike Sievert, CEO of T-Mobile.
T-Mobile’s broadband rollout thus far has been largely centred around its Fixed Wireless Access product, which serves over 5 million customers.
“We are proud to have partnered with Lumos over the past six years to rapidly scale the company and roll out fibre to underserved markets,” said Jan Vesely, partner within EQT’s Infrastructure Advisory Team. “We look forward to continuing to leverage EQT’s considerable digital infrastructure and fibre expertise to support the significant fibre buildout ambitions of T-Mobile and the joint venture.”
The joint venture aims to increase Lumos’ homes passed to 3.5 million by 2028.