Frontier says that it has surpassed its 2017 Connect America Fund (CAF) build-out commitments in the 29 states it serves, reaching over 45% of its eligible rural households with at least 10/1 Mbps broadband service.
As the service provider extended service via the installation of fiber and necessary network equipment to enable more rural broadband access, over 900,000 households experienced speed increases due to network upgrades in their communities.
The service provider said these improvements result from CAF funding and Frontier capital investment and exceeded the program requirements to reach 40% of eligible households by the end of 2017.
RELATED: Frontier reaches over 275K broadband customers in California with CAF-II help
“The combination of FCC funding and company investment have allowed us to deploy more broadband and improve speeds,” said Mark Nielsen, EVP and chief legal officer for Frontier, in a release.
As Frontier rolls out service to more rural communities, it's marketing the new and improved speeds to customers, including through door-to-door sales, direct calls, and targeted advertising. Several of the locations served can receive speeds of 25 Mbps and higher depending on the nature of the last-mile facilities. Overall, Frontier has committed to broadband availability in CAF-eligible areas in 774,000 households throughout the CAF-II program.
One state where Frontier continues to make rural broadband progress is California. Earlier this month, Frontier revealed it has extended broadband service to over 275,000 households across California, using a mix of its own capital and CAF-II program funding.
In all, the service provider can now offer broadband service in 200 neighborhoods in about 100 cities and communities in 15 California counties. These households include over 39,000 CAF-designated locations in Frontier's service area that now have access to broadband with speeds of at least 10/1 Mbps—nearly half of its planned 90,000 locations statewide, which exceeds the CAF program's 2017 deployment milestone of 40%.
In 2015, Frontier accepted $283 million in annual CAF-II support from the FCC that will enable it to build out broadband service to over 650,000 rural locations that it could not economically reach before.
Prior to completing its acquisition of Verizon’s properties in California, Texas and Florida, Verizon conditionally accepted the CAF-II offer of $32 million in California and a $17 million annual amount in Texas.