gFiber to Take Over Ting Fiber's Colorado Springs Dark Fiber Lease

By James Calloway

gFiber will assume Ting Fiber's dark fiber lease in Colorado Springs, taking on a network that passes about 75,000 homes while relieving Tucows' loss-making fiber unit of roughly $322.8 million in remaining payment obligations.

The transfer is expected to close on March 31, 2027. Ting Fiber will continue serving its broadband customers in the city until the transaction wraps up. Upon closing, Ting effectively hands its remaining lease with Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU) to gFiber, which becomes the network's substitute tenant.

Why is Ting exiting?

The deal follows mounting financial strain at Ting Fiber. Parent company Tucows initiated a review of strategic alternatives for the subsidiary in late 2025 as it continued to absorb losses. In June, Tucows disclosed "substantial doubt" about Ting Fiber's ability to meet its financial obligations within one year unless it secured more financing.

The pressure had already forced cuts. A 2024 cost restructuring at Tucows included a 42% layoff at Ting Fiber and a 17% reduction of Tucows' total workforce.

Ting Fiber said in a customer FAQ that it "made the tough decision to focus on investment in other Ting markets." The company operates in parts of California, Idaho, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia.

What are the terms on the table?

The lease obligations are large by any measure. At the end of Q2 2026, Ting's remaining aggregate payments under the original 30-year lease stood at roughly $322.8 million, Tucows said in an October 22 10-K filing. Under that original agreement, CSU was projected to receive about $670 million.

The lease dates to August 2023, when CSU selected Ting Fiber as the initial anchor tenant on its XGS-PON-based open-access network, part of a multi-phase plan to bring fiber to about 200,000 locations in Colorado Springs.

The build is running slightly behind. CSU Chief Financial Officer Tristan Gearhart said the utility expects the full build to wrap "within a few months" of its original end-of-2028 target, according to the Colorado Springs Gazette.

Ting Fiber's 2,000-plus customers in the city will keep receiving 2-Gig broadband at the current price of $89 per month until they cancel. Ting also offers a home broadband and mobile bundle starting at $99 per month.

What does this change for gFiber?

The transaction broadens gFiber's Colorado footprint considerably. It builds on existing rollouts in Highlands Ranch/Douglas County, Wheat Ridge, Westminster, Lakewood and Denver, where gFiber uses its Webpass fixed wireless access platform. Further builds are planned in Golden, Broomfield County and Adams County.

The open-access utility model is familiar ground. gFiber runs a similar arrangement with a utility in Huntsville, Alabama. Louis Lipner, gFiber's head of strategic partnerships, said the company has been pleased with the Huntsville project and has wanted to enter Colorado Springs since at least 2022, the Gazette reported.

gFiber expects to bring its own service portfolio to the market. It plans to start taking orders in Colorado Springs by the end of 2026, with installations beginning in early 2027, according to Ting Fiber's FAQ. A website is live for residents to sign up for availability alerts.

A bigger consolidation play runs in parallel

The lease transfer is not happening in isolation. gFiber's pending merger with Astound Broadband, expected to close later this year, will produce an operator passing more than 7.11 million locations.

Stonepeak will hold majority ownership of the combined company, with Alphabet — gFiber's parent — retaining a significant minority stake. The combined operator will run under the gFiber brand and be led by gFiber's existing executive team.

For Colorado Springs residents, the practical question is continuity of service and pricing after March 2027, and gFiber's early order window at the end of 2026 will offer the first evidence of what the new tenant intends to charge.