FCC Seeking Comment on Canadian Bell Purchase of Ziply

WASHINGTON, Feb. 18, 2024 – The Federal Communications Commission is seeking input on Canada’s largest telecom provider’s $5 billion acquisition of Ziply Fiber.

The companies inked the deal late last year. BCE Inc., an abbreviation of its former name Bell Canada Enterprises Inc., would be scooping up Ziply’s 1.3 million-location footprint in the Pacific Northwest in the Canadian firm’s first foray into American fiber. BCE has a 9 million-location footprint in Canada, and is looking to expand to 12 million in North America with the addition of Ziply.

The FCC will have to approve the transfer of some broadband subsidy support, as well as Ziply’s service authorizations and spectrum licenses. Ziply, the product of investment firm Searchlight Capital purchasing Frontier assets, has already received a waiver on foreign ownership limits, something the BCE deal will also need.

“The Applicants assert that leveraging Bell Canada’s wide-ranging and creative fiber deployment expertise gained while deploying fiber in geographically difficult locations in Canada will help Ziply Fiber meet its fiber buildout plans,” the FCC noted in its public notice. Companies have to show a merger wouldn’t harm the public interest to get a greenlight from the agency.

The companies expect the deal to close in the second half of 2025. Comments are due Feb. 28, with replies due March 7.

The agency has other mergers on its plate, namely Verizon’s purchase of Frontier, two T-Mobile joint ventures acquiring Lumos and Metronet, and T-Mobile’s purchase of wireless provider UScellular. Those aren’t seen as being in danger of being stonewalled. Each of the T-Mobile deals is currently under review by federal law enforcement agencies, a standard part of transactions involving foreign companies – T-Mobile is owned by German firm Deutsche Telekom. 

The FCC recently cleared Searchlight’s bid to take Consolidated Communications and its roughly 2.6 million passings private, plus a bid by Ziply to buy Washington ISP LocalTel.