Simple Broadband

Simple Broadband

Simple Broadband was founded in 2018 by Ari Buchalter, the former CEO of Intersection and a veteran of Blackstone's infrastructure group. The firm structures itself as a permanent-capital vehicle rather than a traditional private-equity fund, targeting long-duration digital infrastructure assets. Its explicit focus is acquiring and upgrading rural and suburban internet service providers whose networks can be densified with fiber and next-generation fixed-wireless technology. Simple Broadband's deployment strategy is concentrated across three asset classes: fiber-to-the-home networks, fixed-wireless access spectrum, and carrier-neutral data-center colocation facilities. The firm acts as an active owner-operator, typically acquiring incumbent local exchange carriers or regional wireless ISPs and layering in capital for network modernization. Confirmed portfolio operations span Texas, the Pacific Northwest, and the Midwest, though the firm does not publicly disclose individual operating-company names. Its playbook involves buying assets where the capital cycle of a traditional private-equity fund is too short to realize the infrastructure returns. The firm operates from a lean New York headquarters. Team size is not publicly reported. Buchalter has indicated the capital base includes family-office and institutional co-investors structured on a deal-by-deal basis rather than through a blind-pool fund, though precise deployment totals remain undisclosed. In 2023, the firm acquired a regional fixed-wireless provider in the Pacific Northwest, adding licensed spectrum assets to its operating portfolio (per the firm's official communications, 2023). Simple Broadband's structural differentiator is its permanent-capital holding-company architecture. Unlike traditional infrastructure funds that must exit assets within 5–10 years, Simple Broadband can own and reinvest in its operating subsidiaries indefinitely, matching the depreciation and upgrade cycles of broadband networks without liquidity pressure. This model aligns with the physical reality of telecom infrastructure, where value compounds only over decades.