In November 2023, Farmington Hills and Farmington announced Farmington Area FiberCity as a citywide fiber internet network. SiFi Networks was building it as a privately funded project of roughly $70 million, at no cost to taxpayers. In August 2026, a Delaware bankruptcy judge approved the sale of SiFi Networks America's assets to a company called ArcLink Fiber, in a deal Law360 reported at $5.85 million.
None of that shows up on your street. The paint marks, the black tubes poking out of the right-of-way and the straw matting over fresh seed all look the way they did last spring. What changed sits behind the work: the company answering the phone, the deadline the project now runs against, and city web pages that haven't fully caught up with either.
The Summer, in Court Dates
The whole ownership change took about nine weeks.
- May 2021. Farmington Hills and Farmington jointly approved a METRO Act permit letting SiFi Networks build in the public right-of-way.
- November 1, 2023. The cities announced the start of the FiberCity build-out.
- June 5, 2026. SiFi Networks America, LLC filed for Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, case No. 26-10912.
- August 6, 2026. The court approved the sale to ArcLink Fiber LLC, the stalking horse bidder.
- August 7, 2026. The sale closed for $5.85 million in total consideration, according to a bankruptcy case summary. That was $200,000 in cash, with most of the rest as a credit bid.
That last detail explains why $5.85 million looks so far from $70 million. In a credit bid, the buyer pays mostly with debt it was already owed instead of new cash. So the price reflects how the company's debts were arranged, not the cost of the conduit already buried along Farmington Hills streets. The city says much the same thing in its own words. On its FiberCity FAQ, Farmington Hills says project partners report the main investors "remain fully committed," are still funding the work and are making additional investments to keep construction on schedule.
The Deadline Moved From a Projection to a Requirement
The FAQ answer about the bankruptcy also restates the schedule:
"Major construction work is expected to be finished by the end of 2026, and full completion is required by October 2027."
Set that beside the city's older materials. The FiberCity timeline document lists construction completion as "Fall 2026 (projected)." A different answer on the same FAQ page still says the network will be installed communitywide "with an expected completion in fall 2026."
So the current plan has two parts. Heavy construction is meant to wrap up in the roughly two months left in 2026. After that, the project has until October 2027 to be fully finished. If your street hasn't seen crews yet, or saw early passes but no restoration, the gap between those two dates is the window to watch. The city has not posted an address-level or neighborhood-level schedule, so the reliable early warning is still the one described below.
What the Four Crew Passes Look Like From Your Driveway
The new owner didn't change the work itself. The city describes construction as four passes in the public right-of-way. That strip is usually the land between the road and the sidewalk. On streets without sidewalks, it typically runs about 16 feet back from the edge of the road, depending on location.
| Pass | What you see | What it's for |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ground-level chambers set at spaced intervals | Access points crews use later to pull fiber |
| 2 | Drilling under pavement, then short black tubes sticking up from the ground | Conduit run under driveways and roads |
| 3 | Trenches between the black tube sections | Connecting the conduit into a continuous line |
| 4 | Fiber cable fed through, then soil, grass seed and straw matting | Lighting the line and restoring the right-of-way |
Seven to 10 days before work starts on a street, residents are supposed to get a door hanger. ArcLink's construction guide describes the same sequence from its side: paint markings, a door hanger, cones and signs, ground-level access boxes, construction, then restoration. The city's FAQ names Always Underground, Inc. as the construction partner whose crews do the work.
The city also asks residents to do two things once restoration is finished. Water the new grass seed, and pull up the straw matting once the grass is about three inches tall. Crews are also responsible for fixing sprinkler heads damaged during the work.
The Phone Number Is the Same. The Company Answering It Isn't.
This is the part of the sale that reaches your front yard. The FAQ still tells residents with incomplete restoration to contact the SiFi Networks customer service team at (888) 766-9475 or [email protected]. It adds that complaints sent to the city are passed along to SiFi. The city does not fix restoration problems itself. Under the right-of-way access, reseeding is the builder's responsibility.
Meanwhile, ArcLink's homepage says the company "has taken over management and delivery of SiFi Networks projects." It lists +1 (888) 766 9475 for questions about construction or registering for service. The number on the city's page and the number on ArcLink's page are the same line, and ArcLink now operates it.
The ownership wording hasn't caught up yet. The FAQ still says SiFi Networks owns the infrastructure, while ArcLink says it manages and delivers the projects. For a resident with a bare patch of dirt by the curb, the practical answer is the same either way. Call the 888 number, and expect the person on the other end to work for ArcLink.
What You Can Actually Buy Once Your Street Is Lit
FiberCity is described as an open-access network, meaning the network owner builds and runs the lines while multiple internet companies can sell service over them. Signing up is optional. When the project was approved, the city's stated hope was more provider choice and lower internet costs as more companies entered the market.
So far, the one retail provider the city names is T-Mobile Fiber. Residents can check their address or call 844-7-TFIBER. T-Mobile's Farmington-area page lists three tiers, each with an AutoPay discount from the standard price:
- 300 Mbps: $35 a month with Fiber AutoPay, $45 standard
- 1 Gig: $50 a month with AutoPay, $60 standard
- 2 Gig: $70 a month with AutoPay, $80 standard
T-Mobile notes that taxes and fees may apply and that availability and pricing vary by address. The 2023 announcement described network capacity of up to 10 Gbps. That figure is what the infrastructure can carry, not a plan anyone currently sells on it.
FiberCity is also arriving in a city that already has fiber in places. AT&T's Farmington Hills page advertises speeds up to 5 Gbps where available, with symmetrical 300 Mbps, 500 Mbps and 1 Gig plans. Whether a second retail provider joins T-Mobile on the FiberCity lines will decide how much the open-access model actually changes prices. No second provider has been announced.
Not Every Orange Cone This Fall Is Fiber
Some of the right-of-way work you're seeing this month belongs to other projects. The city posted a detour for construction at Drake and 12 Mile, with completion expected around October 27. In its October 9 road update, The Oakland Press said 12 Mile Road resurfacing from east of Orchard Lake Road to Autumn Ridge was projected to finish in October, including crosswalk, signal and SMART-stop work. It listed separate phase-one work on 12 Mile from Novi Road to Farmington Road with a "late Fall" target and one lane open each way. Those are road projects with their own contacts. If the work is a curbside chamber or a trench of black conduit, it's fiber, and that's the 888 number.
Fiber access is starting to come up in conversations about Farmington Hills homes, and whether a street is lit, still under construction or waiting for restoration is a fair question for any buyer or seller here. If you'd like to talk through how that might affect a home you're selling or considering, Andrea Yakobe can help. Schedule a quick market consultation or book a showing today.
