Uniti is a REIT with about 140,000 route miles of fiber in the us, primarily in the Southeast. It has agreed to merge with Windstream, which will result in Uniti giving up its REIT status and adding a consumer telecom business line. Uniti's business currently consists exclusively of fiber leasing to enterprises. Windstream currently leases the Uniti network and makes up the bulk of Uniti's revenue and profits. The combined firm will own 217,000 route miles of fiber and pass 4.3 million households and 150,000 commercial buildings, mostly in less populated markets in the Southeast. The firm will continue to offer fiber access to enterprises, as Uniti currently does, but residential telecom services will become its largest revenue stream.