Great Plains CEO outlines fiber M&A strategy, backbone focus and AI plans

Great Plains Communications has a lot going on. The company just inked a deal to acquire 40,000 passings from Fastwyre in Nebraska, marking its fifth purchase in the last eight years. CEO Todd Foje said more residential mergers & acquisitions could be on the table, but noted the operator’s backbone network is one of its key moneymakers and a focal point for forward-looking investment. “There are some newer companies that focus on just fiber-to-the-home or just hyperscaler data center connectivity, or they have to pick one or two things because they can only raise capital to do those,” Foje said. But Great Plains Communications juggles a combination of residential, business, and wholesale. Its network stretches more than 20,000 miles across 13 states. Assets include both its residential last-mile network as well as an upgraded 400G backbone network that runs from Colorado and Wyoming in the West to Ohio and Kentucky in the East.