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The transaction will combine Quintillion’s terrestrial fiber and roughly 1,500 miles of planned expansion with GCI’s statewide network.
Edited by Brad Randall, Broadband Communities
GCI Holdings, a subsidiary of GCI Liberty, announced it has agreed to acquire Quintillion, a fiber infrastructure provider in Alaska, for an enterprise value of $310 million. The transaction, unveiled this week, will combine Quintillion’s more than 1,800 miles of existing subsea and terrestrial fiber and roughly 1,500 miles of planned expansion with GCI’s statewide network.
Closing is subject to regulatory approval and customary conditions.
“This combination is more than the sum of its parts,” said Billy Wailand, GCI’s senior vice president of corporate development, in the release.
Wailand said the deal will bring “complementary fiber routes, deep operational expertise, and long–term investment under one operating model,” creating a network he described as stronger, more resilient, and better suited to Alaska’s realities.
Quintillion’s president, Mac McHale, said he was proud of the company’s Arctic-ready infrastructure and expressed confidence that GCI’s Alaska-focused operations will carry the assets forward.
Other details of the deal
GCI said combining the two networks will materially improve reliability for customers by increasing routing diversity and enabling a ringed, self‑healing network architecture that can reroute traffic automatically when disruptions occur. The companies argued that unified, Alaska‑based network operations will provide clearer accountability during outages and improve day‑to‑day performance through coordinated maintenance, repair readiness, and long‑term capital planning.
The purchase includes several financial mechanics beyond the upfront valuation.
CI will reimburse up to $50 million of qualifying capital expenditures tied to the Nome‑to‑Homer Express project, and may pay additional consideration in 2028, 2029 and 2031 tied to earnout metrics.
Shortly after signing, GCI, LLC agreed to provide a $160 million unsecured loan to Quintillion. The release says existing customer relationships and service arrangements are expected to continue without change after closing.
Some AI tools assisted in the crafting of this report.
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