Frontier boosts fiber target to 10 million locations, eyes 10-gigabit service

Frontier Communications ramped up its fiber expansion plan, aiming to reach a total of 10 million locations by the end of 2025 rather than its original target of 6 million. The operator also plans to rollout symmetrical 2 Gbps service in Q1 of 2022. Frontier President and CEO Nick Jeffery said the move will increase its performance beyond cable's reach to a level “where only fiber can compete.” He added it is “already in advanced planning to launch a 5 to 10 gigabit per second ultra-high-speed offering,” though did not provide a timeline for doing so. Frontier is now aiming to deploy fiber to 600,000 new locations in 2021, up from a previous goal of 495,000, which it said will raise its total number of locations served to 4 million by the end of the year. The end of 2021 will mark the close of what Frontier referred to as Wave 1 of its fiber build, with Wave 2 set to add the additional 6 million passings required to take it to 10 million.