Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg hinted the operator has its eye on fresh enterprise opportunities related to its ongoing One Fiber build, but provided little detail about what those might encompass.
Verizon launched its One Fiber initiative in 2016, initially announcing a six-year, $300 million project in Boston. It eventually outlined ambitions to add fiber to more than 60 markets outside of its ILEC footprint to serve its wireless and wireline networks.
Speaking during a UBS investor conference on Monday, Vestberg said its One Fiber build will not only support its networks but is “going to be an important asset over time when we come to enterprises and things like that that we want to serve as well because we’re going to have our own fiber basically across the nation in the most big, important and populated places.”
Verizon CTO Kyle Malady stated in June “the core” of the operator’s One Fiber project was roughly 80% complete. However, Verizon’s Chief Network Engineering Officer Ed Chan said during a Wells Fargo investor conference last month the build will be two-thirds complete by the end of this year and mostly finished by the end of 2022, according to a summary of his comments provided by analyst Eric Luebchow in a note to investors.
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In addition to acting as the backbone for its wireless network, One Fiber is serving Verizon’s Fios business. Asked if the operator planned to ramp Fios deployments in response to moves from competitors like AT&T, Vestberg said “I think we already are leaning into the Fios footprint and actually doing more.”
He continued: “I think that this year we’re doing more open-for-sales than we have done in along time but we’re also adding a lot of new customers. And we will continue to do that. The Fios product and the Fios footprint are doing extremely well. We will continue going into next year, continue deploying the residential broadband and business broadband based on our Fios.”
Last month, Verizon CFO Matt Ellis noted the company plans to add around 400,000 open-for-sale locations within its ILEC footprint this year and for “at least the next two to three years.”
In Q3 2021, Verizon added 129,000 total broadband net additions, of which Fios Internet net adds were 104,000.