AT&T will work with Frontier Communications to bring fiber-optic connectivity to large enterprise customers outside AT&T’s current footprint. The two companies signed multi-year agreements that will also support deployment of AT&T’s 5G mobility network.
The companies say this is important as the demand for edge computing and 5G networks grows, so too does the need for resilient fiber pathways for connectivity. Enterprises need more bandwidth to keep data moving fast. By collaborating with Frontier, AT&T says it will be able to offer large enterprise customers high-speed, low-latency and highly secure connectivity in markets where it does not own a fiber network or currently plan to build one. AT&T will tap Frontier’s Ethernet network to boost connectivity between cell towers and the core network.
“We’re bringing together two complementary networks to benefit business customers that require fiber-optic connectivity,” said Mike Shippey, Frontier’s Executive Vice President of Business and Wholesale. “As part of this deal, we’ll use our expanding fiber network to provide AT&T high-speed connections for large enterprise customers and the expansion of its 5G mobile network across our markets.”
AT&T is building out additional fiber across its wired footprint and plans to reach about 2.5 million incremental customer locations-passed by the end of 2021, and 30 million locations by the end of 2025. AT&T’s business fiber network enables high-speed connections to 2.5 million U.S. business customer locations as of September 30, 2021. Nationwide, more than 9 million business customer locations are within 1,000 feet of AT&T fiber, according to the carrier.
This year, Frontier announced a new strategy to Build Gigabit America. A fiber expansion plan that will pass 10 million locations by the end of 2025, is central to this strategy. The company expects to make fiber available to 600,000 new locations in 2021, resulting in approximately four million fiber locations passed by the end of the year.
