Frontier's Chief Network Officer Details Fiber-First Strategy

Although fixed wireless is getting a lot of attention these days, the technology is not in Frontier’s plans “in a material way,” said Frontier Chief Network Officer Veronica Bloodworth, adding “we’re a fiber-first company.” Bloodworth is part of a new Frontier management team put in place as the company emerged from bankruptcy. After working previously on fiber deployments at Verizon, she said her position at Frontier is her “dream job,” noting that the company is “big enough to have a scale advantage but small enough to be nimble.” Frontier is on track to meet goals established under the new management team, including having fiber available to 10 million locations by 2025. In 2022 the company expects to build to 1 million locations, which will increase to a 1.6 to 1.7 million-location run rate next year, Bloodworth said. Bloodworth reiterated that Frontier’s cost per home to deploy fiber in the current investment phase is $900 to $1,000 and she still “feels good” about those numbers, even though the industry is experiencing some shortages that could drive cost increases.