Frontier Communications (NASDAQ: FYBR) announced yesterday that its fiber-to-the-premise deployment now passes five million homes and businesses in its 25-state operating area. That figure is the midpoint of its goal of 10 million locations passed by the end of 2025. In 2021, Frontier’s new leadership team launched a fiber-first strategy under the mantra of Building Gigabit America. In August of that year, the company set the 10 million-by-2025 goal.
Since then, Frontier has accelerated its fiber build in eight consecutive quarters. In its 3Q22 earnings call, the company raised its deployment target for 2022 from 1.0 million to 1.1-1.2 new fiber locations. Frontier also revised upward its full-year 2022 midpoint capital expenditures to $2.55 billion from $2.45 billion, and Adjusted EBITDA to $2.10 billion from $2.08 billion. Frontier had 1.6 million fiber broadband customers at the end of 3Q22, a 16 percent year-over-year increase. Nearly half of Frontier’s new fiber broadband activations are for speeds of 1 Gbps or higher.
“We are halfway to our initial goal of 10 million fiber locations passed, which means more of our schools, neighbors and business owners now have access to high-speed fiber internet,” said Veronica Bloodworth, Frontier’s Chief Network Officer. “We are delivering our fiber-first strategy at a record pace knowing the critical role that we play in connecting communities. It’s impressive to see our teams and external partners come together to accelerate our fiber build despite the challenging environment.”
Frontier says that it is the second largest fiber builder in the U.S., behind AT&T. As the demand for high-speed broadband connectivity grows, the company believes that its FTTP technology is best positioned to meet the internet access needs of consumers and businesses across its operating footprint. Frontier’s new “Un-Cable Yourself” campaign highlights the advantages of fiber internet over legacy cable connections for consumers.
“Simply stated: Fiber does what cable can’t,” said John Harrobin, Frontier’s Consumer EVP. “Fiber is superior to cable by leaps and bounds and will be the internet standard for decades to come. This is a truth supported by troves of objective data and why we are positioning Frontier as the number one ‘un-cable’ option in the market.”
