Frontier is helping fiber securitization take off

It’s a no-brainer that fiber providers need some way to get the money they need for their passings targets, whether that’s tapping into government grants or private equity support. However, Frontier Communications is pursuing a third option. In August 2023, Frontier inked a $2.1 billion asset-backed securitization (ABS) deal – the first public company in the U.S. to secure funds backed by fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) assets. ABS is a type of financial investment that uses income-generating assets as collateral and is an alternative to other ways of raising capital, like corporate bonds or bond funds. Ropes & Gray attorney Christopher Poggi told Fierce the ABS space is pretty new for fiber. Although 2023 was “a record year” for fiber ABS issuance. But Poggi said ABS offerings can be “extremely complicated to set up.”