Nextlink Internet today announced the acquisition of Echo Wireless for an undisclosed price. The acquisition expands Nextlink’s market into the state of Indiana, specifically, the rural communities in Knox, Davies, and Lawrence counties.
Nextlink was one of the biggest winners in both the Connect America Fund and the RDOF auction. Traditionally the company was a fixed wireless provider, although it has been deploying more fiber broadband.
“This marks Nextlink’s 8th state where it has active operations,” Claude Aiken, Nextlink Internet chief strategy officer, said in a prepared statement. “We will immediately begin upgrades to the legacy Echo network infrastructure that we’re acquiring today.
“These upgrades will bring download speeds to at least 100 Mbps across Knox County and in many areas, we will be offering up to 500 Mbps download speed plans. Over the coming years, many rural Knox County residents can expect to receive gigabit speed internet from Nextlink as we continue to build out and upgrade our infrastructure.”
Echo employees will continue their employment, helping to support Nextlink customers across 12 states.
The Echo acquisition is just the latest for Nextlink, which has been expanding aggressively recently. Among other acquisitions have been Bluestem Network; CCAOnline, Inc.; the internet service business of Connecting Point (ConPoint); and three Nebraska-based providers, including Future Technologies, Affordable Internet Solutions (AIS) and Infinity 8 Broadband.
