Zayo Completes Crown Castle Fiber Acquisition
The $8.5 billion deal expands Zayo’s network by 90,000 route miles.
WASHINGTON, May 4, 2026 – Digital infrastructure provider Zayo completed its acquisition of Crown Castle’s fiber business on Friday, expanding its fiber footprint across U.S. metro markets.
Crown Castle said in 2025 it would sell its fiber and small cell businesses in an $8.5 billion deal as part of a shift to focus on its tower operations.
Zayo said the acquisition adds approximately 90,000 route miles and 40,000 on-net enterprise locations to its network. Following the acquisition, the company’s network spans about 224,000 route miles across North America.
Zayo is adding the assets as it seeks to meet rising demand from artificial intelligence and cloud infrastructure, driving demand for high-capacity fiber networks.
The company said the added fiber will improve network capacity, route diversity, and access to enterprise customers in key markets.
“This combination of long-haul scale and dense metro reach is critical to supporting the next wave of AI demand,” the company said in a release.
The acquisition is Zayo’s largest and its 50th overall, adding to more than $35 billion the company has invested in fiber infrastructure.
“As AI is increasingly embedded in the global economy, bringing with its unprecedented connectivity needs, high-capacity fiber infrastructure has become indispensable,” CEO of Zayo, Steve Smith, said.
“This acquisition expands our ability to deliver capacity where it matters most and strengthens the critical fiber infrastructure powering today’s AI, cloud, and enterprise ecosystems,” he added.
Smith said Zayo is “built for this moment” and positioned to “unlock the full value of these assets.”
Jeff Noto, chief financial officer of Zayo, said the company is focused on long-term growth tied to fiber demand.
“We see long-term tailwinds driving demand for fiber infrastructure,” Noto said.
He said the acquisition will help Zayo “generate durable, long-term growth from the industries shaping the digital economy.”
In a related transaction, private equity firm EQT completed the acquisition of Crown Castle’s small cell business on Friday, gaining 115,000 small cell sites, which mobile carriers use for extra capacity.
Zayo will provide fiber to the small cell business, now called Arium Networks, under a long-term commercial agreement.
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