Grain Management

Founder David Grain holds an M.B.A. from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth CollegeDartmouth CollegeDartmouth College is a private institution of higher education in Hanover, New Hampshire, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded by Eleazar Wheelock, it received a royal charter on December 13, 1769. The 1819 Supreme Court ruling in Dartmouth College v. Woodward preserved its private status. Alongside undergraduate liberal arts education, Dartmouth includes the Geisel, Thayer, Tuck and Guarini schools. It enrolled 7,273 students in fall 2025 and held a $9 billion endowment at June 30, 2025. Sian Leah Beilock, in office since June 2023, remained president as of October 2026.Open the full entry and a B.A. in English from the College of the Holy Cross. Before founding the firm, he led the tower company Pinnacle Towers (later renamed Global Signal) out of bankruptcy and through an initial public offering, making it one of the largest independent wireless communication tower companies in the world; earlier he served as Senior Vice President of AT&TAT&TAT&T (AT&T Inc.) is a telecommunications company headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Its predecessor was SBC Communications, a regional holding company created in the 1984 breakup of the Bell System; SBC merged with the original AT&T Corp. in 2005 and adopted its name, and it has since operated a nationwide wireless network and fiber broadband, at one time also owning DIRECTV and WarnerMedia.Open the full entry Broadband’s New England Region and as an Executive Director in the High Yield Finance Department at Morgan StanleyMorgan StanleyMorgan Stanley is an American global financial services firm that grew from an investment banking partnership into a publicly traded financial group spanning investment banking, securities trading, wealth management, and investment management.Open the full entry.⁠[1][1][1]

David Grain founded the firm in 2007 with the objective of investing in the communications industry in a differentiated way, drawing on deep sector knowledge, rigorous analytics and in-house operating and financial professionals; since its founding the firm has invested exclusively in broadband and telecommunications, covering fiber networks, wireless spectrum, cell towers and related services.⁠[1][2][3][3]

In April 2014, Verizon WirelessVerizonVerizon (Verizon Communications Inc.) is one of the largest telecommunications carriers in the United States, formed in 2000 through the merger of Bell Atlantic, one of the “Baby Bells,” and GTE. Headquartered in New York City, it operates a nationwide wireless network, Fios fiber broadband and communications services for businesses and government, and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq.Open the full entry agreed to acquire Cincinnati Bell’s 1.7/2.1 GHz AWS spectrum licenses and related assets for $210 million ($194 million in cash, with the remainder consisting of assumed tower leases), assigned its acquisition rights to Grain, and then leased back most of the licenses from Grain; Cincinnati Bell subsequently exited the wireless business to focus on fiber.⁠[4][4][4][4][4]

As of February 2015, Grain’s Grain Infrastructure II, L.P. had acquired 253 towers and 95 other assets from TowerCo for $244 million, following an earlier purchase of 85 towers from nTelos; these transactions brought Grain’s tower count to approximately 487, making it the 15th largest tower owner in the United States.⁠[5][5]

On June 19, 2018, Grain entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Great Plains Communications, the largest privately owned telecommunications provider in Nebraska. Founded in 1910 as a local telephone company and run until then by descendants of founder E.C. Hunt, the company provided telephone, television and broadband services to more than 90 communities in the state and would operate more than 9,500 route miles of network after closing. The transaction was completed in late 2018 and was the first investment of Grain’s fourth fund.⁠[2][2][2][2][2][6]

On April 25, 2019, Grain’s fourth fund, Grain Communications Opportunity Fund II (GCOF II), closed with $899 million in commitments, exceeding its $750 million target; by then the firm had managed more than $2 billion across its investment vehicles since its founding in 2007.⁠[6][6]

On September 3, 2019, Grain completed the sale of its nationwide portfolio of wireless communications assets to American Tower, comprising approximately 400 towers and related property interests, one of the largest privately held wireless portfolios in the United States and located mainly in tier-two and tier-three markets; financial terms were not disclosed.⁠[7][7][7][7]

On January 22, 2020, Grain completed the acquisition of a majority interest in Florida fiber provider Summit Broadband from Cable Bahamas; the deal had been announced on August 19, 2019, and its terms were not disclosed. Summit owns more than 1,800 fiber route miles in central and southwest Florida.⁠[8][8]

Grain’s third spectrum fund, Grain Spectrum Holdings III (GSH III), quietly closed on $1.5 billion of commitments in September 2020, exceeding its $1 billion target, and then took part in the FCC’s Auction 107 (the C-Band auction), the largest auction of mid-band 5G spectrum in the United States. On April 6, 2021, the flagship fund GCOF III closed with $2.25 billion, exceeding its $1.5 billion target, bringing the firm’s cumulative managed capital to more than $6 billion.⁠[9][9][9][9]

On July 7, 2021, Grain announced the acquisition of Conexão Group, one of the largest high-speed internet providers in northeast and southeast Brazil, marking its entry into Latin America; the company had more than 450,000 residential and 20,000 business subscribers and owned an approximately 8,400-route-mile fiber network.⁠[10][10]

On January 17, 2023, Grain opened an office in London to establish its presence in Europe and the U.K., adding to its offices in Washington, D.C., New York and Sarasota, Florida; the London team handles deals outside the United States and is led by Managing Director Ted Manvitz.⁠[11][11][11]

On June 15, 2023, Grain, in partnership with digital infrastructure investment platform StratCap, acquired a majority stake in a 127,000-square-foot Tier III data center at 55 Hereford Street in Brampton, Ontario, with StratCap taking a minority stake and managing the facility.⁠[12][12][12]

On September 28, 2023, Franklin Raines, former Chairman and CEO of Fannie Mae and former Director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, joined Grain’s board of Senior Advisors, bringing it to five members.⁠[13][13][13][13]

On February 15, 2024, Grain completed the acquisition of Quintillion (QSH Parent Holdco LLC), a fiber connectivity provider in Alaska and the North American Arctic. Quintillion built and operates a subsea and terrestrial fiber network linking the Alaskan Arctic with the contiguous United States and in June 2023 received an $89 million award from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s Middle Mile Broadband Infrastructure Grant Program.⁠[14][14][14]

On March 27, 2024, Grain, through its flagship funds, and BlackRockBlackRockBlackRock is a publicly traded investment management company headquartered in New York, founded in 1988 by Larry Fink and seven others and listed on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker BLK); its businesses include the iShares family of exchange-traded funds and the Aladdin investment and risk management platform. As of June 30, 2026, its assets under management totaled $15.3 trillion.Open the full entry, through a fund managed by its Diversified Infrastructure business, made a strategic investment in Phoenix Tower International, the largest global private tower platform, joining existing investor Blackstone; the company operates more than 24,000 towers across 23 countries in North America, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. For this deal, Grain, Phoenix Tower International and BlackRock received the TMT Finance “Towers Deal of the Year” award on September 26, 2024.⁠[15][15][15][3][3]

On March 20, 2025, Grain announced that it had reached an agreement with T-Mobile and entered exclusive discussions to acquire all of T-Mobile’s 800 MHz spectrum, a nationwide low-band portfolio with an average depth of 13.6 MHz, in exchange for cash and Grain’s own 600 MHz spectrum portfolio; the parties had filed for regulatory approvals. Grain initially planned to make the spectrum available to U.S. utilities for mission-critical communications, with Black & Veatch as exclusive sales agent. Dirk Mosa, T-Mobile’s Senior Vice President for spectrum, said T-Mobile had already deployed most of the Grain 600 MHz spectrum it gained access to through the deal.⁠[16][16][16][16][16][16]

On May 30, 2025, T-Mobile entered into a License and Unit Purchase Agreement with Grain affiliates NEWLEVEL IV, L.P. and NEWLEVEL, LLC: T-Mobile would sell its 800 MHz spectrum licenses in exchange for $2.9 billion in cash and Grain’s 600 MHz spectrum licenses, and, after Grain achieves a certain return on invested capital, T-Mobile may receive a share of future proceeds from Grain’s monetization of the 800 MHz licenses.⁠[17][17][17]

On December 4, 2025, former FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks joined Grain’s board of Senior Advisors; during his FCC tenure he focused on broadband access and communications network security, and he had earlier helped lead the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau and served as a senior advisor at the U.S. Department of Justice.⁠[18][18][18][18]

On March 31, 2026, Grain completed the sale of Hunter Communications, Oregon’s largest privately owned fiber-optic internet provider, to Oak Hill Capital; the deal had been announced in December 2025 and its terms were not disclosed. Hunter operates a fully fiber network of more than 3,000 route miles in Oregon, Washington and Northern California.⁠[19][19][19][19]

On April 22, 2026, Grain entered into a definitive agreement to sell Quintillion to Alaskan operator GCI Holdings, subject to customary closing conditions.⁠[20][20]

On June 15, 2026, Republican Senator Ted Cruz, chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, wrote to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr expressing “serious concerns” about the Grain–T-Mobile deal and urging approval only with specific, enforceable deployment requirements. Grain had sought waivers of certain license rules to push buildout deadlines from 2028 to 12 years after approval, later proposing nine years; Cruz questioned whether Grain intended to let the spectrum sit idle and flip it for a profit, a concern the Rural Wireless Association had also raised, while Grain and T-Mobile argued that longer timelines would allow more complex and higher-capacity systems to be built.⁠[21][21][22][22][22][22][22][22]

On July 1, 2026, the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau issued Order DA 26-653 approving T-Mobile’s assignment to Grain of 800 MHz licenses (817–824 MHz paired with 862–869 MHz) and Grain’s assignment of 600 MHz licenses to T-Mobile. The 800 MHz licenses stemmed from assets the U.S. Department of Justice required T-Mobile to divest as a condition of its merger with Sprint and had been underutilized for years.⁠[23][23][23][23]

To prevent spectrum warehousing, the FCC imposed conditions stricter than those the applicants proposed: it rejected Grain’s proposed six-year interim and 12-year final buildout deadlines in favor of three and eight years, required that performance metrics be met license by license rather than through nationwide measures, and required meaningful broadband service; it also provided that clearly defined direct-to-device (D2D) satellite performance requirements would apply if Grain completed a transparent competitive solicitation and submitted complete D2D applications before the end of 2026.⁠[23][23][23][23][23]

Recon Analytics analyst Roger Entner said the biggest winner of the deal was T-Mobile, which shed 800 MHz spectrum that was effectively unusable for it and received usable 600 MHz spectrum in return.⁠[24]

On August 11, 2026, Grain completed its acquisition of T-Mobile’s nationwide 800 MHz spectrum portfolio, becoming the owner of one of the largest privately held low-band spectrum portfolios in the United States. The Band 26 spectrum covers all major metropolitan and rural areas of the country with approximately 14 MHz of blended depth nationwide and can be used for private networks for utilities and other critical infrastructure operators, enterprise communications and direct-to-device satellite services, while being compatible with established mobile protocols and most devices. Goldman Sachs served as Grain’s financial advisor.⁠[25][25][25][25][25]

On September 2, 2026, Grain completed the combination of its portfolio companies Ritter Communications and Great Plains Communications to form Rightfiber, a merger announced in June of that year. Rightfiber obtained a $1.6 billion credit facility led by Fifth Third Bank and serves more than 400 communities in 20 states with a 28,000-mile fiber network and more than 300,000 fiber-to-the-home passings.⁠[26][26][26]

On September 30, 2026, Grain-backed managed network services provider Spectrotel completed its merger with global connectivity provider AireSpring, announced on April 23, 2026, with terms undisclosed; the new company is backed by Charlesbank Capital Partners, Grain continues to invest, and AireSpring’s founding Lonstein family remains a significant minority investor.⁠[27][27][27]

On October 8, 2026, Grain announced a definitive agreement under which SpaceX will acquire 100% of Grain’s nationwide 800 MHz spectrum portfolio, subject to FCC approval and other customary closing conditions. SpaceX announced the same day that the low-band licenses comprise up to 14 MHz of paired spectrum and will give Starlink Mobile a coverage layer able to penetrate walls and reach indoor devices, complementing its global 2 GHz mid-band spectrum; SpaceX said most existing phones already support the band and that, once it receives final FCC approval, it will deploy its satellite-to-mobile constellation together with a terrestrial network.⁠[28][29][29][29][29]

According to the parties’ application to the FCC, the purchase agreement was dated October 8, 2026, and would transfer the 800 MHz licenses held by Prism License Co. 1 and Prism License Co. 2 under Grain affiliate NewLevel IV, L.P. to Starlink Spectrum Holdings, a wholly owned SpaceX subsidiary. Neither Grain nor SpaceX disclosed the price; The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, said SpaceX would pay about $8 billion in cash. BDT & MSD Partners served as Grain’s financial advisor, with Milbank and Latham & WatkinsLatham & WatkinsLatham & Watkins is an international law firm founded in Los Angeles in 1934 by Dana Latham and Paul R. Watkins. Starting from tax and labor law, it grew into a full-service firm covering M&A, capital markets, finance, litigation and regulatory work; by 2025 revenue it is the world’s second-highest-grossing law firm.Open the full entry as legal and regulatory counsel respectively.⁠[30][30][30][31][28]

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said this was the last critical piece of the spectrum puzzle needed for SpaceX to provide complete phone coverage in America. After the news, shares of AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon each fell about 6% in after-hours trading. The spectrum had originally been slated for sale to Dish under the T-Mobile–Sprint merger arrangements, a deal that fell through when Dish could not afford it.⁠[32][31][33]

As of June 30, 2026, Grain managed more than $12 billion in assets across 11 investment vehicles, with offices in Washington, D.C., Sarasota, Florida, New York and London. Its investments span five categories—spectrum, fiber, data centers, towers and services: it has historically owned nearly 60 spectrum licenses in strategic U.S. markets, has invested in nearly 30,000 towers across 24 markets since inception, and holds fiber assets in 25 U.S. states and South America.⁠[34][35][28][36][36][36]

As of October 2026, David Grain serves as Chief Executive Officer, Jenny Kashdan and Raghav Nayar co-lead U.S. investments, Ted Manvitz heads international investments, and Erika Gray is Chief Financial Officer.⁠[37][37]

Grain Management: Official website: https://graingp.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[6]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/grain-management-llc (opens in a new window)⁠[34]