UPDATE: Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb announced the Indiana Finance Authority has “terminated” a 25-year, $260 million agreement with Ohio-based Agile Networks to lease space on state-owned communication towers, reports the Indianapolis Business Journal.
This comes after the deal, which was reported in December by Inside Towers, received significant pushback from groups like the Indiana Cable Telecommunications Association and the Indiana Broadband and Technology Association who opposed the expansiveness of the transaction, which would have included the state’s fiber infrastructure and public rights-of-way.
Holcomb told the Indianapolis Business Journal that he “lean[s] into rebidding this, but want[s] to make sure we get a deal, and a deal just never materialized.”
Vice President and former Indiana governor Mike Pence announced a series of construction projects across the state, which would have been funded by revenue generated from this agreement. Construction has already begun on some of those projects.
Holcomb said he hopes the state can find an alternative way to fund these projects, which could include a lease agreement with another wireless company. “The projects that would have benefitted from this revenue source are worthy projects and I’d like to see them come to fruition,” Holcomb told the Indianapolis Business Journal. “How we get there needs to be reviewed.”
February 10, 2017
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