Cellular tower giant Crown Castle International on Wednesday announced the completion of its $7.1 billion acquisition of Lightower.
CCI officials said in a statement that the deal adds Lightower’s roughly 32,000 miles of fiber — located primarily in New York, Philadelphia, Boston and other northeastern markets — and more than doubles its overall fiber footprint to more than 60,000 miles.
The company originally announced the agreement in July and last month increased its common stock dividend based in part on the pending acquisition.
CCI argued that the purchase would bolster its ability to deploy small cell sites to support next-generation 5G networks.
“With approximately 40,000 towers, 50,000 small cells on air who are under contract and more than 60,000 route miles of dense metro fiber performance for the Lightower acquisition, Crown Castle is the only infrastructure provider in the U.S. that can provide these elements at scale,” President and CEO Jay Brown said in the company’s third quarter earnings call.