Frontier boosts cost cutting target to $400 million, adds 66,000 fiber subscribers

Frontier Communications closed in on some key milestones for its business in Q3:

• Built fiber to a record 351,000 locations to reach a total of 4.8 million fiber locations, nearly halfway to our target of 10 million fiber locations,
• Added a record 66,000 fiber broadband customers, resulting in fiber broadband customer growth of 15.8% compared with the third quarter of 2021,
• Consumer revenue of $785 million declined 1.9% from the third quarter of 2021, as strong growth in fiber broadband was offset by declines in legacy video, voice, and others,
• Consumer fiber revenue of $424 million increased by 3.6% over the third quarter of 2021, as growth in consumer broadband revenue offset declines in voice, video, and others,
• Consumer fiber broadband revenue of $278 million increased by 14.4% over the third quarter of 2021, driven by growth in fiber broadband customers,
• Consumer fiber broadband customer net additions of 64,000, a two-fold increase from the third quarter of 2021, resulted in consumer fiber broadband customer growth of 16.3% from the third quarter of 2021.

Frontier is broadening the scope of its fiber build to 12 states by the end of 2022 and 15 or 16 states by 2023, allowing it to avoid hotspots where sourcing labor might be more challenging and expensive. As a result, it remains confident in its $900 to $1,000 cost per passing projection with modest inflation having already been factored into its guidance.