Another aggregator gets acquired. Nitel and Masergy went to Comcast Business, where the changes are so egregious that customers (and partners) have to re-think the relationship.
Spectrotel was acquired by Grain Management, a telecom heavy private equity firm. Now Grain gets some help from Charles Street Bank to buy AireSpring to make Spectrotel bigger.
Daniel Lonstein of AireSpring* reached out to tell me that I was wrong in calling it an acquisition on LinkedIn, but Perplexity explained the press release this way: “AireSpring was bought” – economically, AireSpring is being folded into a Spectrotel/PE-backed platform, with its founders rolling over as minority investors, so AireSpring is closer to the “acquired” side, even though the public framing is “merger of equals.””
Doesn’t matter: another private equity owned provider. They get bigger, but hardly ever better.
Aggregators are the new CLECs, but like the CLEC era of telecom (1996-2006), it was hit or miss. Some CLECs just couldn’t deliver, especially an Integrated T1. Many were in it for a quick payday. Then they all started merging (PAETEC and USLEC in 2007). The FCC’s UNE-P ruling (2003) ended up being a death knell for many CLECs. Commercial agreements for access replaced tariffs and TA96, but not all competitors were able to get a favorable agreement done. Today, copper is retiring quickly, with former CLECs losing revenue faster than the ILECs. $100 POTS lines are being swapped out for POTS Replacement, mainly a hardware device with a 5G SIM. PRIs and T1s are being replaced with broadband and SIP Trunks, at much less revenue. Another stumble for the CLEC industry.
The original value was one bill. Put another way: One throat to choke – but partners didn’t think we would have to continually choke them to get anything done. [Yet that is the value that a telecom agent brings to the table: the agent deals with the telco so the client doesn’t have to. This value will only increase with POTS Replacement and consolidation.]
Aggregation of all types of circuits: cable and broadband, POTS replacement, SIP Trunks, DIA, Wave, SD-WAN, Ethernet are now coupled with life cycle management under one bill and one portal. Got to have a Portal! One more place looking for 2FA that turns a quick task into an hour long ordeal.
Spectrotel and AireSpring will be offering their “managed network services platform”. Marketing requires new terms like NaaS or managed network services platform or something besides rebiller. You don’t own the network so you have to have special sauce on top of Layer 1-3. At FISPA, one phrase I said has stuck: Own Layer 1 or Layer 7 – anything in-between is Arbitrage.
That being said: Good for the Lonsteins on this transaction. It will close later in 2026. Then the synergies will start. That’s the part that partners dislike because that’s when things break. And I know you think this is me being negative, but this is telecom. Anyone in it for 10+ years knows how this goes. M&A in telecom is never good for the customers or the partners. If I am wrong, please name one transaction that was great?
Honestly, I don’t know where to turn for aggregation anymore. Who are you using and what do you like about them?
This might be the time for a new aggregator to emerge or one of the smaller ones to make some noise. Or it might be time for a partner to take the step into reselling themselves. With Datagate and other billing providers, becoming a rebiller for your customer is simple. You can also join the APEX (AT&T Partner Exchange) to start rebilling.
*Some telecom execs are harder on me on the words I use than they are on any trade media.