Anterix

Anterix

Anterix was founded in 2012 as pdvWireless by veterans of the original Nextel — including Executive Chairman Morgan O'Brien, who co-founded Nextel — and CEO Rob Schwartz. The firm acquired a wide-area 900 MHz spectrum footprint from Sprint after it absorbed Nextel, securing a core asset that was reorganized and repurposed. In 2019, the company rebranded to Anterix and completed a critical FCC rule change, repurposing its licensed 900 MHz spectrum holdings to enable private cellular networks for utilities and other critical infrastructure operators. Anterix is not a traditional family office deploying capital across asset classes. It operates as a publicly traded company that controls and licenses a fundamental infrastructure asset: 6 MHz of broadband-ready, low-band spectrum across the contiguous United States, Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico. The company provides the foundational spectrum layer for private LTE networks that utilities like Ameren and San Diego Gas & Electric layer atop their grids for secure, resilient communications. It generates revenue through long-term spectrum lease agreements, often with an option for its utility customers to acquire the 900 MHz broadband license covering their service territory, creating a pathway to ownership. The strategy targets a singular conviction: the U.S. electric grid requires a dedicated, hardened communications layer. Anterix's 900 MHz holdings — characterized by strong propagation characteristics — allow it to serve as an architect and enabler. As of per the firm's May 2024 fiscal year-end filing, the company had entered into agreements with 20 utility customers representing coverage of counties that include more than 20 percent of the U.S. population. Its utility members also launched the Utility Strategic Advisory Board, collectively shaping the ecosystem for private, utility-grade connectivity. The structural differentiator is a public-company licensing model applied to spectrum — a scarce, regulated resource. Unlike venture-funded private network builders that deploy equipment, Anterix provides the invisible layer. By assisting utility clients through the FCC license partitioning process, the firm converts a balance-sheet spectrum asset into fragmented, exclusive customer licenses. The board includes voices from energy and telecom, reflecting a governance structure aligned with the long-cycle regulatory reality of utility procurement, where transmission-system upgrades are measured in decades, not quarters.