Frontier FTTP Build Reaches 5 Million Premises Passed

Frontier Communications (NASDAQ: FYBR) says that its fiber to the premises (FTTP) expansion efforts have enabled the service provider to pass 5 million homes and business with fiber broadband. The milestone marks the halfway point toward Frontier’s goal of passing 10 million premises by 2025.

The company launched the FTTP initiative in 2020 and set the 10 million premises passed goal in 2021. As the company already had approximately 3.2 million homes passed in May 2021, installers may need to pick up the pace for Frontier to reach its 2025 target. Along these lines, the company says it has raised its target passings for 2022 from 1 million to a range of 1.1 to 1.2 new fiber locations.

Nevertheless, the company was in the mood to celebrate. “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.”

The push followed the successful exit from bankruptcy proceedings, engendered in part because of a lack of fiber investment, according to some Frontier executives. The company now appears to have learned its lesson and is now touting itself as the second-largest fiber builder in the U.S. “Simply stated: Fiber does what cable can’t,” added John Harrobin, Frontier’s consumer executive vice president. “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.”