Frontier to supply fiber connections to AT&T
AT&T says it has reached multi-year agreements with Frontier Communications that will see the former using the latter’s fiber to serve large enterprise customers beyond AT&T’s current footprint. The deal also will see Frontier offer fiber infrastructure AT&T’s 5G roll out. The link-up provides AT&T with access to Frontier fiber in 25 states.
AT&T is in the midst of a major fiber deployment initiative that the company expects will add approximately 2.5 million customer locations passed by the end of 2021 and 30 million locations by the end of 2025. However, it has aspirations of serving customers beyond that expanded footprint. Thus, the agreement with Frontier will enable the service provider to reach customers – or help support its 5G mobile services expansion – in areas where the company does not have fiber or plans to deploy it.
Frontier, meanwhile, has embarked on a significant fiber deployment activity of its own (see "Frontier Communications accelerates fiber network expansion"). The company has set a target of passing 10 million locations with fiber by the end of 2025. Within this project, Frontier expects to make fiber available to 600,000 new locations this year, resulting in approximately 4 million fiber locations total passed by year’s end.
“With Frontier building out its own fiber network where we are not building, we’ll be able to work together to provide large business customers with the high-speed, low-latency data connectivity they need to grow and thrive,” commented Scott Mair, president, Network Engineering and Operations, at AT&T. “As demand for broadband connectivity grows, we will be able to plug and play into Frontier’s network to support businesses and help grow our 5G mobility network for consumers.”
“We’re bringing together two complementary networks to benefit business customers that require fiber-optic connectivity,” added Mike Shippey, Frontier’s executive vice president of Business and Wholesale. “As part of this deal, we’ll use our expanding fiber network to provide AT&T high-speed connections for large enterprise customers and the expansion of its 5G mobile network across our markets.”
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Stephen Hardy | Editorial Director and Associate Publisher, Lightwave
Stephen Hardy is editorial director and associate publisher of Lightwave and Broadband Technology Report, part of the Lighting & Technology Group at Endeavor Business Media. Stephen is responsible for establishing and executing editorial strategy across the both brands’ websites, email newsletters, events, and other information products. He has covered the fiber-optics space for more than 20 years, and communications and technology for more than 35 years. During his tenure, Lightwave has received awards from Folio: and the American Society of Business Press Editors (ASBPE) for editorial excellence. Prior to joining Lightwave in 1997, Stephen worked for Telecommunications magazine and the Journal of Electronic Defense.
Stephen has moderated panels at numerous events, including the Optica Executive Forum, ECOC, and SCTE Cable-Tec Expo. He also is program director for the Lightwave Innovation Reviews and the Diamond Technology Reviews.
He has written numerous articles in all aspects of optical communications and fiber-optic networks, including fiber to the home (FTTH), PON, optical components, DWDM, fiber cables, packet optical transport, optical transceivers, lasers, fiber optic testing, and more.
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