FCC approves N.Y. firm’s acquisition of G4

N.H. expansion is ‘significant transaction’

The Federal Communications Commission has approved Albany, N.Y.-based FirstLight Fiber’s acquisition of the assets of G4 Communications, a telecommunications company in Manchester, N.H.

FirstLight CEO Kurt Van Wagenen told the Albany Times Union that the deal is a "significant transaction" for the firm. The Albany firm will acquire G4’s customer base – residential, business and institutional – and its data center in Manchester, one of the largest in the state, to add to its centers in Lebanon and Keene.

The FCC approved the deal late last month. Purchase price was not disclosed.

FirstLight, which is owned by a Boston-area private equity firm, has been using acquisitions to expand, having grown to 190,000 fiber-miles in New York state and New England. The company has also been adding valuable data centers with the mergers and is now up to five data centers with the G4 deal.

FirstLight will continue offering residential service, but its main effort in New Hampshire will be to serve businesses and institutions with its own fiber-optic network, which spans 190,000 route miles over New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts and New York, with its main conductivity to Canada.

The company – owned by Riverside Partners, a Boston private equity firm – started as Tech Valley Communications in 1999. It first entered the New Hampshire market in 2011 when it acquired SegTEL. In March, it worked out a deal with BayRing Communications, which is based at Pease International Tradeport, so it could use that company’s “dark fiber” network on the Seacoast and down into Boston.