Fiber firm Cogent has converted another 24 former Sprint technical sites into Edge data centers.

T-Mobile sold its wireline business to Cogent for just $1 in September 2022. Much of the business sold was Sprint‘s legacy US long-haul fiber network, which T-Mobile had acquired as part of its $26 billion merger with Sprint in 2020.

Cogent’s acquisition included hundreds of technical buildings and switch sites previously used for Sprint’s wireline business – and Cogent has since set about converting the largest 48 into colocation data centers (since updated to 52). Last year it also jumped into the Edge market, converting a further 55 smaller sites into colocation facilities.

In its Q1 2025 earnings report and call, Cogent said it had converted and added another 24 Edge facilities and 8MW of capacity to its portfolio, with founder and CEO David Schaeffer saying each site averages around 40 racks.

In total, Cogent now has 180 data centers with 211MW of installed power available for customers. The site's totals capacity for 26,000 racks across 2.11 million sq ft (195,000 sqm).

The company operates 101 core Cogent data centers totaling 183MW, with capacity for 23,150 racks across 1.9 million sq ft (176,515 sqm); and 79 Edge data centers totaling 28MW, with capacity for 2,850 racks across 158,500 sq ft (14,725 sqm.)

In Q4 2024, Cogent said it had 104 core facilities. Schaeffer has previously said the company aims to exit a number of leased sites in markets where it had a converted Sprint facility.

Customers queue up for wholesale space

After originally only looking to offer colo space at each site, Cogent has since pivoted to also offering 23 of the former Sprint properties on a wholesale basis – since revised to 24.

With regards to leasing out the converted core data centers or selling them and leasing back part of each site, Schaeffer said the company has a “handful of situations where we are moving from a letter of intent to contract.”

The company has received four letters of intent from potential buyers, with more potentially coming. Schaeffer said the company has “just over 100MW” across 24 facilities earmarked for sale or long-term lease.

“In terms of pricing, I would say the couple of parties that are negotiating leases are similar to our asset price,” Schaeffer added. “On the parties that are negotiating for outright purchase, there is a much wider dispersion at least one of the contracts is at the gas price, but the others are below that.”

While reluctant to give a firm date when interest will turn into a contract, he said the company is “making good progress.”

“We don't have an exact time frame, but we are highly motivated to sell this surplus capacity as it is not baked into our financial projections but would be the easiest way for us to quickly deliver,” he said.

Cogent’s total capex for the quarter was $58.1 million. The company said its principal payments on capital leases declined to $8m for the quarter.

“We have accelerated and expanded our data center conversion program due to the high level of demand for our power availability,” said Thaddeus G. Weed, VP, CFO and treasurer of Cogent. “This program will require capital spending for the first half of 2025, similar to the last half of 2024, and then decline in the second half of 2025.”

The company also noted that it does not anticipate any material impact on its capex due to tariffs.

“Much of our data center and network conversion equipment has been ordered pre-tariff, and a majority has been received,” said Schaeffer. “A portion of our network equipment purchases do have tariff input costs, but these are minimal.”

For the quarter, Cogent posted service revenues of $247m, a decrease of 2.1 percent on Q4 2024 and a decrease of 7.2 percent on Q1 2024. GAAP gross profit was $26.34m. EBITDA for the quarter was $43.8m.

DCD sat down with Cogent CEO Dave Schaeffer to discuss the company’s repurposing of legacy Sprint switch sites in the newest issue of DCD>Magazine. Download for free today.