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  "description": "In its Chapter 11 filing, the company reported between $10 million and $50 million in debts.",
  "path": "/sifi-networks-u-s-open-access-provider-files-for-bankruptcy/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-10T15:04:42.000Z",
  "site": "https://broadbandbreakfast.com",
  "tags": [
    "See Breakfast Club Membership Options!",
    "See Breakfast Club Membership Options",
    "Chapter 11 filing",
    "recently sold",
    "compared to 29",
    "Broadband Breakfast event",
    "investors pulled out",
    "permitting disputes",
    "even sued",
    "back in 2019",
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  "textContent": "WASHINGTON, June 10, 2026 – Open access fiber operator SiFi Networks has filed for bankruptcy.\n\nThe 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.\n\nSee Breakfast Club Membership Options!\n\n\n                            See Breakfast Club Membership Options\n                        \n\nHere is the Chapter 11 filing.\n\nFounded 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.\n\nSiFi 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.\n\nOpen access networks have been gaining traction in recent years, but the road hasn’t always been smooth for SiFi.\n\n###  _Sometimes rocky road for SiFi_\n\nAs 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.\n\nIn 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.\n\nWhen 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.\n\nSiFi’s bankruptcy filing also revealed it has ongoing litigation against Generate subsidiaries in New York State, as well as Berkshire Hathaway and Cablevision.\n\n### _Creditors Zayo, Windstream, will be paid, filing says_\n\nAbout $1.2 million of the company’s debts are unsecured, according to the filing, meaning they’re not backed by SiFi’s assets.\n\nAmong 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.\n\nSiFi 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.\n\nThe 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.\n\nSiFi 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.\n\nWhile 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.\n\nA 2024 report by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance found 47 city-owned citywide open access networks across the U.S.",
  "title": "SiFi Networks, U.S. Open Access Provider, Files for Bankruptcy",
  "updatedAt": "2026-06-10T21:47:04.751Z"
}