Conterra expands fiber footprint with Detel, Broadplex acquisitions

Conterra Ultra Broadband Holdings, Inc., which provides fiber-optic network services, says it has acquired a pair of regional fiber services providers. The acquisitions of Louisiana-based Detel and North Carolina provider Broadplex nearly triples the company's footprint to more than 6,200 route miles and 355,000 fiber miles across seven states.

Terms of the deals were not disclosed.

Both of the new acquisitions have provide both lit and dark fiber services for more than 15 years to largely the same core customer demographics as Contrerra. These customer classes include K-12 school districts, wireless and landline carriers, healthcare organizations, government organizations, and mid-sized as well as Fortune 500 enterprises. Conterra says that the management teams of both of the newly acquired companies will stay on.

"We have been working closely with both Detel and Broadplex for years and plan to take advantage of the many benefits that our larger scale, operating efficiencies and local customer relationships will bring to our combined bandwidth infrastructure growth as a result of these transactions," commented Conterra's President and Chief Executive Officer, Steve Leeolou. "We are also delighted that Daryl Deshotel and his core team in Louisiana and Dr. Rocco DiSanto and his core team in the Carolinas will continue to provide transferable innovations, rapid and cost effective deployment capabilities, and local competitive knowledge to our combined Conterra business plan."

With the expansion, Conterra now provides services in such markets as Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and Asheville, NC; Richmond, VA; Nashville, TN; Fort Worth, San Antonio, El Paso, and Tyler, TX; Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Monroe, and Shreveport, LA; Tucson, AZ; Albuquerque and Las Cruces, NM; and San Francisco, Fresno, Oakland, and San Bernardino, CA. Court Square Capital, a private investment firm, is Conterra's majority owner, with the remaining ownership largely held by Conterra's management team. Other institutional financial partners include Toronto Dominion Bank, Bank of America, CoBank, ING Capital, and Antares; all five of these of the companies provided what Conterra termed "financing support" for the two transactions.

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