Frontier’s Ethernet and Fiber Optic Networks to Help AT&T Deliver Fiber Service for Enterprise Customers and Boost 5G Mobile Network
What’s the news? AT&T* will work with Frontier Communications to bring fiber-optic connectivity to large enterprise customers outside AT&T’s current footprint. The two companies signed multi-year strategic agreements that will also support deployment of AT&T’s 5G mobility network.
Why is this important? As the demand for edge computing and 5G networks grows, so too does the need for resilient fiber pathways for a connected society. Enterprises need more bandwidth to keep data moving fast. By collaborating with Frontier, AT&T will be able to offer large enterprise customers high-speed, low-latency and highly secure connectivity in markets where it does not own a fiber network or currently plan to build one.
What are AT&T and Frontier providing? AT&T is building out additional fiber across its wired footprint and plans to reach about 2.5 million incremental customer locations passed by the end of 2021 and 30 million locations by the end of 2025. AT&T’s business fiber network enables high-speed connections to over 2.5 million U.S. business customer locations as of September 30, 2021. Nationwide, more than 9 million business customer locations are within 1,000 feet of AT&T fiber.1 This year, Frontier announced a new strategy to Build Gigabit America. An aggressive fiber expansion plan that will pass 10 million locations by the end of 2025 is central to this strategy. The company expects to make fiber available to 600,000 new locations in 2021, resulting in approximately 4 million fiber locations passed by the end of the year. This agreement will enable AT&T to quickly reach additional locations by utilizing Frontier’s complementary fiber network. Together, the two companies will enable high-speed connectivity to large enterprise customers within Frontier’s 25-state footprint.
Who can use this? AT&T will be able to utilize Frontier’s fiber network to help reach enterprise customers in Frontier’s service territories reaching 25 states. AT&T will also use Frontier’s network to strengthen nationwide deployment of the Nation’s Best 5G Network2 and, for the fourth straight year, America’s Best Wireless Network.3 In addition, AT&T will tap Frontier’s Ethernet network to boost connectivity between cell towers and the core network.
What are people saying?
“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,” said Scott Mair, President, Network Engineering and Operations, 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,” said 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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