- Although Boldyn is selling these fiber assets, it will still lease them from Pilot Fiber
- Boldyn provides free public Wi-Fi in the New York City subway and across kiosks in the city
- When T-Mobile first started rolling out its T-Fiber service in various markets across the country, it partnered with Pilot Fiber in NYC
Boldyn Networks is selling its fiber networks in New York and New Jersey to Pilot Fiber. Boldyn says that jettisoning these assets will allow it to focus on expanding wireless infrastructure across the region, including connectivity for public transport hubs, government facilities, large venues, in-building, and outdoor small cells.
New York remains a key market for Boldyn as the company has an ongoing commitment to provide free public Wi-Fi in the New York City subway and across kiosks in the city.
Although it’s selling its fiber assets to Pilot, it will still lease those assets, along with Pilot’s existing fiber infrastructure. Boldyn did not disclose the amount of fiber route miles it’s selling, nor the price. But from Pilot’s perspective, the Boldyn fiber will expand its fiber network to more than 1,600 route miles, which connect over 1,200 buildings and 50 data centers.
Christos Karmis, U.S. CEO at Boldyn Networks, said, “At our core we're focused on wireless infrastructure. But we felt like by doing this deal, it provided our fiber customers with a larger fiber plant, which will serve them better through the Pilot business.”
The expanded fiber network will also give Boldyn access to more enterprise buildings to potentially provide its wireless connectivity. “It kind of tied into our strategy of where we want to focus,” said Karmis. “And there was no downside to it. There was no compromise of our ability to maintain connectivity to existing assets or to grow the wireless assets.”
Fierce Network asked why Boldyn owned these fiber assets in the first place. Karmis said, “Originally it was sort of conceived to provide connectivity to small cells and just kind of continuously expanded from there. And then we ended up with sort of this commercial fiber business.”
But he said Boldyn doesn’t have a similar situation in any other cities. The only other fiber it operates is to serve major private networks or transportation hubs where it provides wireless connectivity.
Pilot Fiber
Interestingly, when T-Mobile first started rolling out its T-Fiber service in various markets across the country, it partnered with Pilot Fiber in New York City to provide the underlying fiber network.
But a spokesperson for T-Mobile told Fierce this week, “Earlier this year, we mutually agreed with Pilot Fiber to not renew our relationship and service to the remaining T-Mobile Fiber customers in New York City.” The service ended there on August 31. The spokesperson said, “We proactively notified customers ahead of the transition and shared options for continuing internet service at their address, including switching to T-Mobile 5G Home Internet, so they could avoid a gap in connectivity.”
In September, Ookla analyst Mike Dano pubished a report showing the brands that are either a part of T-Mobile’s T-Fiber today or will be in the future, pending the close of T-Mobile’s various deals.
Read more about Boldyn and T-Mobile on Fierce Network:
Touchdown! Boldyn finally kicks off Wi-Fi updates on the BART system