Starry Group Holdings Inc., the Boston-based wireless broadband provider, is emerging from bankruptcy with a new leader who has a more sober view on growth and a rediscovered bias toward reaching profitability, Bloomberg News reported. The company filed for chapter 11 protection in February and has restructured as a closely held venture, according to a statement Thursday. The board will include co-founders Alex Moulle-Berteaux and Chet Kanojia. Ditching earlier hyper-growth aspirations that ran aground when the capital markets dried up, Starry Chief Executive Officer Moulle-Berteaux said he has a fully funded moderate-growth business plan that will get the company to break-even in two years or less. Moulle-Berteaux, a Starry co-founder, was previously the company’s chief operating officer. Wireless broadband connections start at $50 a month at Starry, which is cheaper than cable and landline internet services. The company sells service in Boston, Los Angeles, New York City, Denver and Washington. Currently it has fewer than 100,000 broadband subscribers, Moulle-Berteaux said. Starry’s second act comes at a highly competitive time in the broadband industry. All three of the major U.S. mobile service providers have been using new super fast 5G networks to beam signals into homes to provide internet access. The lower cost wireless broadband offerings, where Starry will be competing, have been popular with customers looking for cheaper alternatives to landline internet offerings and have undercut subscriber growth at the cable companies including Comcast Corp. and Charter Communications Inc.
