UNIT vs ATUS Comparison

Uniti is a REIT with about 140,000 route miles of fiber in the us, primarily in the Southeast. It has agreed to merge with Windstream, which will result in Uniti giving up its REIT status and adding a consumer telecom business line. Uniti's business currently consists exclusively of fiber leasing to enterprises. Windstream currently leases the Uniti network and makes up the bulk of Uniti's revenue and profits. The combined firm will own 217,000 route miles of fiber and pass 4.3 million households and 150,000 commercial buildings, mostly in less populated markets in the Southeast. The firm will continue to offer fiber access to enterprises, as Uniti currently does, but residential telecom services will become its largest revenue stream.

Altice Europe acquired privately held us cable company Suddenlink in 2015 and Cablevision in 2016. Suddenlink's networks provide television, internet access, and phone services to roughly 4 million U.S. homes and businesses located primarily in smaller markets, with major clusters in Texas, West Virginia, Idaho, Arizona, and Louisiana. Cablevision provides comparable services to about 5.5 million homes and business in the New York City metro area. Both regions now operate under the Optimum brand name. Altice Europe spun off Altice USA, which includes both the Suddenlink and Cablevision operations, to shareholders in 2018. Altice USA also owns News 12 Networks, which broadcasts local news in New York and i24News, a news operation focused on the Middle East.