In August of last year, Frontier Communications outlined a goal to increase its fibre coverage to 10 million places by 2025, but it has been largely quiet on where it is concentrating its efforts since then. In Connecticut, the operator said it has already constructed 500,000 fibre locations and plans to add another 300,000 by the end of 2025. Frontier stated in an email to Fierce that it will spend $800 million overall to cover 800,000 locations across the state. The corporation has previously stated that its cost per passing ranges between $900 and $1,000, and this number is consistent with those claims.
Parts of More Than 70 Localities Are Already Within The Frontier
Frontier announced that it would send more than 1,000 personnel to its target regions to complete the project by installing fibre. More than 70 cities throughout the state, including Hartford, Norwalk, Bridgeport, West Hartford, North Haven, Glastonbury, Union, and Stafford Springs, have already been partially served by the operator. It is currently focusing on new locations, such as East Windsor and Windsor Locks.
As per a Frontier official, the company considers a lot of variables when determining which markets to prioritise, such as market density, distance from the CO, topography, deployment needs, permits, etc. We shall be mostly concerned with expanding on our current presence, regardless of whether it is brownfield or greenfield.
The operator made its disclosure a month after agreeing to a settlement with the Connecticut Attorney General over claims that it used deceptive marketing techniques. As a condition of that deal, Frontier agreed to spend more than $42 million over the following three years to connect fibre to almost 40,000 homes. As per the Frontier representative speaking to Fierce, the company's recently revealed investment includes settlement. The official continued, It has also obtained some government assistance to build out a very small number of locations in the state.
Connecticut is a core component of Frontier's overall expansion plan, its Chief Network Officer, Veronica Bloodworth, said in a statement to Fierce Connecticut. Apart from Connecticut, it is challenging to identify other locations where Frontier is active; however, it is not completely impossible.
At a city council meeting in June, Doug McAllister, vice president of external affairs for Frontier, described the operator's intention to install fibre to 3,400 locations in the vicinity of Bishop, California, with 75% airborne fibre and 25% underground fibre before the end of 2022. During this time, Frontier was installing fibre all across Porter, Chesterton, and Porter County, according to a notice the Town of Porter, Indiana, published on its website in June.