FCC Approves BCE Purchase of Ziply
The Canadian firm is set to acquire Ziply in a deal valued at $5 billion.
WASHINGTON, July 14, 2025 – The Federal Communications Commission approved Monday BCE’s $5 billion purchase of Ziply Fiber.
The companies inked the deal in late 2023. BCE Inc., an abbreviation of its former name Bell Canada Enterprises Inc., is set to scoop up Ziply’s 1.3 million-location footprint in the Pacific Northwest in the Canadian firm’s first foray into American fiber. BCE, based in Montreal, has a 9 million-location footprint in Canada, and is looking to expand to 12 million in North America with the addition of Ziply.
Ziply is the product of investment firm Searchlight Capital purchasing Frontier assets. Frontier has since been bought by Verizon.
The agency waived its 25 percent foreign ownership threshold to allow for Ziply to be completely owned by the Canadian firm. BCE will take on Ziply’s commitments for FCC subsidy programs including the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund and the Connect America Fund Phase II auction.
“We find that the public interest would not be served by prohibiting foreign ownership of the proposed controlling U.S. parent, Northwest Fiber, in excess of the 25% benchmarks” in the Communications Act, the agency’s Wireline Competition Bureau wrote in its order Monday.
The agency’s only condition for approving the deal was the companies monitoring their foreign investors and corporate voting interests and ensuring they complied with U.S. law. The bureau also said it didn’t foresee any public interest harms from the deal, a part of the agency’s analysis when reviewing proposed deals.
The bureau said that since the companies’ footprints don’t overlap, competition wouldn’t be affected, and that BCE had agreed to take on all Ziply’s Universal Service Fund subsidy commitments and any penalties for noncompliance. Ziply participated in and has commitments under the RDOF and CAF Phase II auction.
The bureau also found convincing the companies’ claim that, with respect to Ziply’s USF commitments, “leveraging Bell Canada’s expertise gained while deploying fiber in geographically difficult locations in Canada will help Ziply Fiber meet its fiber buildout plans.”
A utility company in Montana told the FCC that Ziply had repeatedly done unsafe work on its poles, but didn't formally oppose the transaction. Ziply said the allegations were outside the scope of the FCC's review.
Ziply won $57 million in RDOF support over 10 years in the 2020 RDOF auction.
At deal announcement time last November, the companies said they expected the deal to close in the second half of 2025.
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