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AT&T is folding Gigapower and Lumen’s fiber assets into a joint venture half owned by GIP and CPP Investments. The deal shows the different strategic paths AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon are taking in the fiber race. 

In sum – what to know:

• Three playbooks – AT&T shares build costs with investors, T-Mobile buys through JVs and Verizon buys outright, leaving smaller players under pressure.
• Balance sheet first – AT&T will put proceeds towards its 2.5x net-debt target and report only equity income from the JV.
• Open access unproven – AT&T did not say how many outside ISPs use its networks, and Gigapower’s named tenants are multi-family specialists.

Last week, AT&T revealed that it would be folding its two wholesale fiber ventures into a single company, with the help of outside infrastructure investors, extending its capital-light approach to fiber service expansion.

The new joint venture (JV) combines Gigapower, AT&T’s existing wholesale fiber venture with Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), which is part of BlackRock, with Forged Fiber 37, a newly-created subsidiary that holds the Lumen mass-markets fiber business AT&T acquired from Lumen in February of this year. Under the terms of the agreement, AT&T will own 50% of the JV, with GIP and CPP Investments sharing the remaining half. The move shows the distinct strategic playbooks the big three US carriers are using to build out their fiber footprints. While AT&T is pursuing expansion through partners that share the immense infrastructure costs, T-Mobile is leveraging JVs to buy up smaller builders, and Verizon is building scale through acquisition.

Balancing the books

AT&T has said it believes the JV is the most efficient way to scale fiber outside its traditional areas, helping it meet its goal of reaching more than 60 million fiber locations by the end of 2030. According to a company spokesperson, folding Gigapower will, over time, unlock efficiencies across planning, operations, procurement and capital deployment.

But the logic behind the JV is not just about the network. AT&T expects to receive proceeds at financial close, and plans to put them towards its target of net debt at about 2.5 times adjusted EBITDA within around three years. The accounting mechanism reinforces that. After closing, AT&T says it does not plan to consolidate the JV’s financial results, choosing to report only its share of equity income or loss. When Gigapower launched in 2023, KeyBanc analyst Brandon Nispel argued that such structures let AT&T expand partly off its balance sheet, something investors might not credit.

What the deal does not reveal is the price. AT&T paid $5.75 billion for Lumen’s mass-markets fiber business, and FactSet noted in July that what an equity partner paid for its stake would be an important signal of investor appetite for US fiber assets. With no terms disclosed, that particular signal remains somewhat unclear.

Build or buy

What the deal reveals most clearly is a split in how each of the big three US carriers is paying for fiber. Roger Entner, founder of Recon Analytics, draws a clear line of distinction, describing the intention behind AT&T’s JV being network buildout, while T-Mobile’s ventures constitute “an exit route from smaller fiber only players”.

In April, T-Mobile announced two JVs, committing a combined $2.7 billion for 50% stakes in each. One combined GoNetspeed and Greenlight Networks with Oak Hill Capital, and the other involved the acquisition of i3 Broadband with Wren House. The carrier’s total commitment across four fiber JVs amounts to more than $8 billion, and similarly to AT&T’s strategy with its latest JV, T-Mobile does not wholly own fiber assets, preferring to keep fiber off its balance sheet through JVs and wholesale partnerships.

AT&T has taken a different route, purchasing Lumen’s mass-markets fiber business outright in February, placing it into its Forged Fiber 37 holding company and then selling down its stake to reduce upfront capital intensity. That sale was flagged in advance, with AT&T stating in its Q2 2026 filing that it planned to bring in an equity partner for Forged Fiber 37. According to Entner, the largest carriers are likely to keep buying smaller players directly, in a continuation of this strategy.

Verizon has gone furthest down the ownership route. It completed its $20 billion acquisition of Frontier in January, taking its fiber footprint to about 30 million passings. While that buys scale, it leaves Verizon carrying the capital cost itself, where AT&T and T-Mobile are sharing it with investors.

How ‘open’ is open access?

The AT&T deal also has implications in terms of the network architecture. AT&T describes the JV as a wholesale commercial open access company, meaning several internet service providers can sell over the same network. While AT&T did not reveal how many ISPs use its network, the public track record for third-party ISP tenancy on Gigapower and Forged Fiber 37 networks remains structured around AT&T as the anchor. Gigapower’s own announcements name third-party tenants such as Flume and DojoNetworks, both specialists in multi-family properties.

Asked whether open access is a competitive edge for AT&T or a way to attract investors, Entner said both. It lets other providers use the network, which lowers the cost of running it, while resellers can serve segments AT&T does not want to or cannot serve.

Squeezing smaller players

While the deal is unlikely to change the fundamental competitive dynamics between the big three, Entner claims it is likely to intensify pressure on smaller providers. When it comes to fiber, scale matters across the whole operation, build and operate alike, owing to fixed costs and economies of scale.

Several questions remain until the expected first-half 2027 close. AT&T has not announced updated build goals for the combined venture, its leadership is yet to be named and the deal remains subject to regulatory approvals. Assuming it clears these hurdles, the clearest test will then relate to how many outside ISPs end up on the network, and whether “open access” comes to mean more than AT&T itself as the main tenant.