Frontier Exits Bankruptcy, Claims It Will Double Fiber-To-the-Home Footprint

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Frontier Communications emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Friday, saying that it plans to double its fiber-to-the-premises footprint by extending fiber to an additional 3 million homes and businesses. 'Frontier is deploying capital and pursuing an extensive fiber build-out plan that will accelerate the company's transformation from a legacy provider of copper-based services to a fiber-based provider... Under the first phase of the plan, Frontier intends to invest heavily and pass more than 3 million homes and business locations, enabling a total of over 6 million homes and businesses with Gig-plus speeds,' the company said in a press release.

Expanding to 3 million additional homes will take multiple years, as Frontier said it plans to reach 'approximately 495,000 additional locations in 2021.' That apparently includes 100,000 new fiber locations already built in the first three months of this year. Frontier is analyzing whether it can 'at least double the build rate next year,' Frontier's newly hired CEO Nick Jeffery said, according to FierceTelecom. 'We have 3.4 million total fiber passings today and plan to at least double this footprint over the coming years,' Jeffery also said.

Frontier's current network consists of copper lines that pass 11.8 million homes and businesses and fiber lines passing 3.4 million homes and businesses, Frontier said in a presentation for investors. Even if Frontier achieves its goal of doubling its fiber network, over 8 million homes and businesses would remain stuck on Frontier's old copper network, which provides slower DSL service. Although Frontier didn't promise to extend fiber to all or even to a majority of its copper locations, its presentation said the company's network has a 'substantial competitive advantage relative to competitors' because it includes '12 million copper passings to potentially convert to fiber.'

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