(Source: Allen Creative/Steve Allen)

Scale appears to be the name of the game in AT&T's decision to team with two financial partners to form a new joint venture that will combine the Gigapower JV with Forged Fiber 37, the current holding company for AT&T's recent acquisition of Lumen's fiber assets.

Under AT&T's proposed transaction with BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Gigapower and Forged Fiber 37 will become "one wholesale fiber commercial open access company" focused on accelerating the deployment of fiber networks in the US, the companies said.

The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2027. AT&T will own 50% of the new JV, with GIP and CPP Investments collectively owning the other 50%.

AT&T said the new JV, at the time of closing, will comprise nearly 5 million fiber locations that serve more than 1 million subscribers. Gigapower, the AT&T-BlackRock JV closed in May 2023, has a stated goal to build to at least 1.5 million locations outside of AT&T's legacy wireline footprint. AT&T has not announced any updated fiber network buildout goals for Gigapower.

Forged Fiber 37, the holding company for the former Lumen fiber assets, will operate in parts of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington. Gigapower will continue to operate in parts of Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and South Carolina.

JV leadership details to come

AT&T did not announce who will lead the new JV and if there will be any changes coming to the current leadership at Gigapower and Forged Fiber 37. Gigapower today is led by CEO Francisco Maella, a former Dobson and Alpheus Communications exec. Forged Fiber 37 is led by Wes Gibson, who most recently headed up Lumen's Mass Markets business.

Leadership appointments for the new JV will be announced nearer to the closing, an AT&T official told Light Reading. "Our expectation is that the company will be led by a dedicated management team with deep experience in fiber network operations, construction, and infrastructure management," the official added.

No change to AT&T's fiber buildout forecast

The JV format will naturally give AT&T a way to maintain a "capital light" approach to fiber network expansions as some of those buildout and operational costs are distributed among its partners. AT&T said the proposed transaction also fits with its plan to bring on an equity partner for Forged Fiber 37.

The proposed JV "reaffirms AT&T's fiber strategy," gives AT&T more financial firepower, and once again shows that "scale matters" in the fiber game, Roger Entner, analyst and founder of Recon Analytics, tells Light Reading.

AT&T noted that a key objective of the new JV is to accelerate the deployment of fiber to additional US communities. However, AT&T did not change its stated plan to bring fiber to more than 60 million locations by the end of 2030 through a combination of organic buildouts, JV-led buildouts, and a handful of open access agreements with third parties such as Boldyn Networks, Digital Infrastructure Group, Prime Fiber and Ubiquity. Roughly 50 million of those locations will come from AT&T's owned-and-operated fiber, with the JV serving as the "primary partner" for building fiber outside its traditional wired footprint, the company said.

At the end of Q2 2026, AT&T reached 33.7 million locations with owned-and-operated fiber networks, and 4.9 million from "AT&T Fiber Ventures," which includes passings from Gigapower, Forged Fiber 37 and AT&T's partnership with other commercial open access providers.

"By partnering with leading digital infrastructure investors, we see significant opportunity to strengthen our scale advantage in fiber, broaden availability of our award-winning services and grow our leadership in converged fiber and 5G connectivity," AT&T Chairman and CEO John Stankey said in a statement.

It's not clear if AT&T might adjust that target before or after the proposed JV transaction closes. But Entner won't be surprised to see it change. "To an extent, it's a land grab and you need to move," he said.

Editor's note: The story has been updated with leadership plans for the new joint venture and current fiber passings for AT&T's owned-and-operated networks and those from its ventures and partnerships.