SiFi Networks, U.S. Open Access Provider, Files for Bankruptcy

WASHINGTON, June 10, 2026 – Open access fiber operator SiFi Networks has filed for bankruptcy.

The company reported $1 million to $10 million in assets and between $10 million and $50 million in debts in a Chapter 11 filing (link below paywall) in Delaware Bankruptcy Court on Friday, June 5.

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Here is the Chapter 11 filing.

Founded in 2013, the Delaware-based company was one of the first privately held open access ISPs in the country. SiFi builds citywide, open access fiber networks.

SiFi was recently sold for an undisclosed sum to Dutch pension fund manager APG and German investment firm Patrizia, which were already part of a joint venture with SiFi. The firms had invested a total of $500 million in the joint venture, and raised an additional $350 million in 2023.

Open access networks have been gaining traction in recent years, but the road hasn’t always been smooth for SiFi.

Sometimes rocky road for SiFi

As of 2023 the company was at least planning networks in 38 cities, compared to 29 in April. A SiFi executive said builds were underway or finished in five of those cities during a March Broadband Breakfast event.

In some cases investors pulled out, or permitting disputes with city governments tied up projects. SiFi even sued investment firm Generate capital, alleging the firm shared SiFi’s financial projections for certain city projects with another open access provider Generate had invested in. The two sides settled the case last year.

When SiFi was bought in April, APG and Patrizia said they would complete the rollout of the planned cities. A SiFi spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the future of the company’s builds.

SiFi’s bankruptcy filing also revealed it has ongoing litigation against Generate subsidiaries in New York State, as well as Berkshire Hathaway and Cablevision.

Creditors Zayo, Windstream, will be paid, filing says

About $1.2 million of the company’s debts are unsecured, according to the filing, meaning they’re not backed by SiFi’s assets.

Among those unsecured creditors were Zayo and Crown Castle (whose fiber business is now also owned by Zayo) Windstream, and various legal firms and software companies. The filing said there would be funds to pay them what they’re owed.

SiFi announced its 47,000-location Kenosha, Wis., project was fully completed in January. The company’s website also shows its Placentia, Calif., project as complete, with more than 20,000 passings.

The company was partnering with T-Mobile as the main tenant on its Kenosha, Wis., Rockford, Ill., Palmdale Calif., Oceanside, Calif., and Farmington, Mich., builds, the companies announced in 2024. Viasat signed on as a tenant for SiFi’s Escondido, Calif., build last year.

SiFi was founded by Mike Harris, who owns a Welsh soccer team, and Roland Pickstock. APG said when they sold their stakes that the two could continue developing additional cities on their own.

While SiFi projects are citywide, they’re fully private as opposed to other open access networks that are partly owned by municipalities. Then-SiFi CEO Ben Bawtree-Jobson told Broadband Breakfast back in 2019 that it was simpler to move forward without having to amass the necessary local political capital to push a municipal project over the finish line.

A 2024 report by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance found 47 city-owned citywide open access networks across the U.S.