Verizon’s Frontier acquisition bolsters its fiber/wireless converged plans

Bolstering fiber broadband 

Verizon continues to look for ways to bolster its fiber broadband network through partnerships and acquisitions to reach its stated goal of serving 40-50 million homes.

Verizon is confident that it will reach its goal of passing 32 million homes with fiber by the end of this year, and further increase that number through a series of acquisitions and partnerships.

The service provider previously revealed that it could reach 40 to 50 million homes with fiber, supported by acquisitions and partnerships, including Tillman Global Holdings.

Schulman said that investing “heavily in broadband” remains a top priority for the company.

“We're going to have at least 32 million passings,” he said. “We're looking at more partnerships, potential acquisitions to speed the number of homes past. There's no question, we think that Fiber is a key differentiator against competitors who don't have it.”

Fiber not only enables Verizon to offer higher speeds but also provides an opportunity to reach more customers with a converged wireless/wireline service bundle.

“Our attachment rate of wireless when a customer has broadband, I think it's best in the industry at approximately 55% right now,” Schulman said. “So, I expect that you'll see improvement in our broadband numbers as we go through the year, and we're looking for the optimal, most efficient way to deliver Broadband to the home.”

Overcoming seasonal challenges

While the first quarter is typically slow for all service providers due to seasonal factors, Verizon still managed to grow its Fios and Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) broadband base.

During the first quarter, Verizon enhanced its broadband market share, delivering 341,000 Broadband net adds. This includes 214,000 FWA net adds and 127,000 fiber net adds.

At the end of the quarter, Verizon had 16.8 million broadband connections.

"Overall, we're pleased with our operating results for the first quarter as we have seen significant improvement in our net adds,” said Anthony Skiadis, CFO of Verizon.

Mobility and broadband service revenue reached approximately $22.9 billion, up 1.6 percent year-over-year. The company's first-quarter revenue result includes an 80-basis-point impact on wireless service revenue growth from the January network outage. In March, mobility and broadband service revenue grew within the 2.0 percent to 3.0 percent guidance range.

Skiadis said the company is “confident in the long-term success of our broadband strategy” and that the Frontier and Starry deals will open new growth opportunities in broadband and wireless.

“Frontier accelerates our opportunity to grow our Broadband subscribers as well as our converged offerings, a key enabler to growing wireless share in under-penetrated Frontier markets,” he said. “In the first quarter, in addition to Frontier, we've also closed the Starry transaction, an investment that will enable us to drive further Broadband growth opportunities in multi-dwelling units within urban areas.”

From an overall financial perspective, Verizon reported total first-quarter operating revenue of $34.4 billion, up 2.9 percent year-over year.

For related articles, visit the Business Topic Center.
For more information on high-speed transmission systems and suppliers, visit the Lightwave Buyer’s Guide.
To stay abreast of fiber network deployments, subscribe to Lightwave’s Service Providers and Datacom/Data Center newsletters.