Building on a successful “prove it to me” deployment last year, ADTRAN, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADTN) says it has won a contract to supply equipment to Frontier Communications Corp. (NYSE:FTR) for a major upgrade of the carrier’s broadband delivery capabilities. Frontier has targeted networks it acquired from Verizon in 14 states for an upgrade that will enable it to supply 3-4 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream to at least 85 percent of its customers in the region by 2013.
ADTRAN Director of Marketing, Carrier Networks Division Kevin Morgan says that his company will supply its Total Access 5000, 1200, and 1100 systems to support the three-year effort. Frontier will use the equipment to create a fiber to the node (FTTN) network that will expand broadband service capabilities across the former Verizon footprint.
Morgan says that high-speed Internet and similar broadband services were only available to approximately 62.5 percent of subscribers within the footprint when Frontier first acquired the customer base from Verizon. Frontier embarked on an intensive 180-day buildout program last year for which ADTRAN also supplied equipment (see “Frontier Communications selects ADTRAN for FTTN”). Its success during that rollout paved the way for its role in this more extensive project, Morgan asserts.
Michael Golob, senior vice president, engineering and technology for Frontier, concurred with this assessment in a statement included in ADTRAN’s announcement of the award. “ADTRAN was a major part of our 180-day roll out last July and performed exceptionally well,” Golob said. “The breadth of its solutions is enabling us to meet our footprint coverage goals and positions us perfectly for future business and premium residential services.”
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