Who owns MetroNet? Ownership structure explained (2026)

MetroNet is one of the largest independent fiber-to-the-home builders in the United States, and its ownership answer changed sharply in 2025. For most of its life it was a family-founded company backed by private equity. Today it sits inside a joint venture controlled by a wireless carrier and a global infrastructure investor, a structure that also split apart who serves its customers and who builds its network.

That split is the reason the ownership question is worth unpacking. MetroNet still designs, builds, and maintains the fiber. T-Mobile now owns the residential customers and runs the retail experience under the T-Mobile Fiber brand. KKR sits alongside T-Mobile as an equal financial partner, and the founding Cinelli family and longtime backer Oak Hill Capital rolled a portion of their proceeds back into the new venture rather than cashing out entirely.

This article traces how MetroNet moved from ten small Indiana towns to a 50/50 partnership between T-Mobile and KKR, who holds equity today, and why the arrangement matters for the company's expansion plans.

MetroNet has been building and operating fiber networks since 2005, when the Cinelli family started the company in Evansville, Indiana, with service in roughly ten small Indiana towns. It remains headquartered in Evansville.

The business is a pure-play fiber-to-the-home operator. It builds 100% fiber-optic networks that deliver symmetrical multi-gigabit internet, and historically it sold internet, television, and phone service directly to homes and businesses. PCMag named it the "Fastest Major ISP" for 2023 and 2024.

Its footprint has expanded quickly. At the July 2025 close of the T-Mobile and KKR deal, MetroNet's network reached more than 2.6 million homes and businesses across more than 300 communities in 19 states, spanning over 42,000 route miles of fiber. MetroNet's own materials in 2026 describe access for more than 3 million homes and businesses across those same 19 states, with new communities added each month. Under the joint venture, the partners expect the network to reach 6.5 million homes passed by the end of 2030.

MetroNet is private and does not disclose annual revenue. Oak Hill Capital, its private-equity backer of more than a decade, said the company grew by more than 20 times across key operating metrics during its ownership, and expanded from ten Indiana towns to 19 states.

MetroNet is privately held and has never had an initial public offering. It has no stock ticker of its own. Since July 24, 2025, it has been owned by a joint venture formed by T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS) and KKR (NYSE: KKR). Both parent entities are publicly traded, but MetroNet itself is a private company sitting inside that jointly owned structure, alongside minority positions held by founder John Cinelli and Oak Hill Capital.

MetroNet was founded by the Cinelli family, and John Cinelli is described in company communications as co-founder and current chairman. The family controlled the business alongside private-equity backers for years. In the 2025 sale, the Cinelli family did not exit fully. John Cinelli reinvested to retain a minority position in the new joint venture. The exact size of that stake has not been publicly disclosed, which is typical for a private company. What is confirmed is that the family kept skin in the game rather than selling outright.

MetroNet was built with private-equity capital rather than venture rounds, so its ownership history reads as a sequence of control investments and one large exit. The table below lists the key ownership events with the terms that were made public.

Specific dollar terms were released only for the 2025 transaction. At closing, T-Mobile invested approximately $4.9 billion to acquire a 50% equity stake in the joint venture and 100% of MetroNet's residential fiber retail operations and customers, plus funding of the venture. KKR acquired the other 50%. Because the deal was structured as a joint venture rather than an outright purchase at a stated price, no total enterprise value was officially disclosed. Anyone trying to back into a headline figure from the T-Mobile contribution is estimating rather than citing a confirmed number, and a rough sanity check can be run through a business valuation calculator.

T-Mobile is the operating heavyweight in the ownership group. Beyond its 50% equity stake, it acquired 100% of MetroNet's residential customers and now runs residential acquisition, support, and the customer experience under T-Mobile Fiber. T-Mobile said it does not expect to make additional capital contributions to the venture, which it expects to be self-funding going forward.

KKR holds the other 50% through its global infrastructure strategy. KKR is one of the most active infrastructure investors in the world and has backed fiber networks across the U.S., Europe, and Latin America. It first invested in MetroNet in 2021, joining Oak Hill and management, before scaling up to co-control in 2025.

Oak Hill Capital was MetroNet's long-term private-equity owner. It first invested in 2014 and added capital through multiple funds over more than a decade. In the 2025 sale, Oak Hill did not fully exit either. It reinvested to keep a minority position, signaling continued confidence in the network it helped build.

MetroNet is not a public company and has no shares that trade on an exchange. Its economics flow up to its owners. T-Mobile consolidates its share of the joint venture in its own financial reporting, and KKR holds its half within its infrastructure funds. For a public shareholder, the only way to own a slice of MetroNet's economics is indirectly, by owning T-Mobile or KKR stock. That is a different proposition from owning a listed broadband operator such as how Charter Communications is owned, where the equity trades openly.

Dave Heimbach is president and CEO of MetroNet and leads day-to-day operations, including the network build. He represented the company publicly through the T-Mobile and KKR transaction.

John Cinelli is co-founder and chairman. He founded the company with the Cinelli family in 2005 and retained a minority stake in the 2025 joint venture, keeping the founding family involved in the business.

Sarah Overbaugh was named chief financial officer in 2023 and manages the company's finances.

Control, however, sits with the owners rather than management. With T-Mobile and KKR each holding 50%, major decisions require alignment between the two. On the residential side, T-Mobile holds the customers and the retail brand outright, so it, not MetroNet's management team, sets the consumer strategy. MetroNet's board composition under the joint venture has not been fully disclosed, but the 50/50 equity split means neither T-Mobile nor KKR unilaterally controls the venture, while the founder and Oak Hill hold minority, non-controlling positions.

The 2024 agreement was subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals before it could complete. The transaction closed on July 24, 2025, roughly a year after it was announced, indicating it cleared the required reviews. The deal was one of several fiber acquisitions T-Mobile pursued in the same period, including its Lumos joint venture, which drew scrutiny of the carrier's broader push into fixed broadband.

The most consequential structural change is not a scandal but a reorganization that affects customers. After the close, MetroNet became a wholesale services provider, and its residential customers were transferred to T-Mobile Fiber, which took over billing, support, and the customer relationship. Existing MetroNet subscribers effectively became T-Mobile Fiber customers. Transitions of this kind can create service and billing friction during the handover, a common risk whenever ownership of a customer base changes hands.

MetroNet's absorption into a T-Mobile-controlled venture adds to a wave of consolidation in U.S. broadband, as national carriers acquire independent fiber builders. Critics of such deals argue that fewer independent operators can mean less competition over the long run, even when a well-capitalized owner accelerates a build. The counterargument is that the joint venture gives MetroNet the capital to reach millions more homes than it could have alone. Both points bear on how the ownership change ultimately affects consumers, and mapping that competitive landscape is the kind of task a competitive analysis template is built for.

Ownership determines who captures MetroNet's growth, and the 2025 deal reassigned that in a specific way. T-Mobile did not simply buy a network. It bought the residential customers and the retail brand, then paired them with an equal financial partner in KKR to fund the build. That lets T-Mobile add fiber homes without carrying the entire capital burden on its own balance sheet, because the venture is designed to be self-funding.

For KKR, the structure is a classic infrastructure play. It supplies patient capital for a long-lived asset, the fiber plant, and shares the upside with an operating partner that brings customers and brand. KKR's fiber portfolio spans multiple continents, and MetroNet extends that footprint into fast-growing, underserved U.S. markets.

For the founding Cinelli family and Oak Hill Capital, retaining minority stakes rather than exiting fully signals they expect the network to keep appreciating under its new owners. Their reinvestment aligns them with the outcome, though it also leaves them without control. The people who built MetroNet now hold minority positions in a venture steered by two much larger institutions.

For customers, the ownership change is more than a logo swap. The company that builds and maintains the fiber, MetroNet, is now separate from the company that sells and services it, T-Mobile Fiber. That division shapes who to call, who sets prices, and who competes for the household. It is a very different ownership picture from a carrier that owns its network end to end, a contrast visible in how Verizon is owned and AT&T's public ownership.

MetroNet is owned by a 50/50 joint venture of T-Mobile and the global investment firm KKR, formed in a deal that closed on July 24, 2025. Founder John Cinelli and former owner Oak Hill Capital each retained a minority stake in the venture.

Dave Heimbach is the president and CEO of MetroNet. Co-founder John Cinelli serves as chairman, and Sarah Overbaugh is chief financial officer.

No. MetroNet is a private company with no stock ticker. Its owners, T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS) and KKR (NYSE: KKR), are publicly traded, so the only way to own MetroNet's economics through the market is indirectly by holding shares of T-Mobile or KKR. T-Mobile's own ownership is worth understanding in that context, as covered in who owns T-Mobile.

The Cinelli family founded MetroNet in 2005 in Evansville, Indiana, starting with service in roughly ten small Indiana towns. John Cinelli is described as co-founder and is the company's current chairman.

At the July 2025 close, T-Mobile invested approximately $4.9 billion to acquire a 50% equity stake in the joint venture and 100% of MetroNet's residential fiber retail operations and customers, plus funding of the venture. KKR acquired the other 50%. The total enterprise value of MetroNet was not officially disclosed, so any single headline valuation figure should be treated as an estimate.

At the July 2025 deal close, MetroNet's fiber reached more than 2.6 million homes and businesses across more than 300 communities in 19 states, over more than 42,000 route miles. Company materials in 2026 cite access for more than 3 million homes and businesses, and the joint venture targets 6.5 million homes passed by the end of 2030.