By Michelle Chapman, ABC News
Verizon is to buy Frontier in $20B deal to boost its fiber network.
On the morning of September 4th Verizon Communications Inc. announced a $20 Billion offer to Frontier to merge companies to not only boost Verizon’s fiber network but also to shore up its foray into artificial intelligence.
Frontier is Dallas based with 2.2 million fiber subscribers across 25 states . Well Verizon has approximately 7.4 million Fios connections in nine states and Washington, D.C. The acquisition will enable Verizon to bundle fiber, fixed wireless and mobile services across a broader area with existing and new costumers. This will also help Verizon expand intelligent edge networking for digital improvements with AI and Iot.
Frontier has concentrated heavily on its fiber network capabilities over about four years, investing $4.1 billion upgrading and expanding its fiber network.
However there are some skeptics about Verizons deal. “The real issue is simply that Frontier’s paltry 3.5% national fiber coverage (again, according to the FCC’s broadband map as of end of 2023) would leave Verizon with a combined fiber footprint that still covers less than 13% of the country, with a path to potentially take that only to about 17% of the country,” Craig Moffett of MoffettNathanson Research wrote. “A fiber footprint covering 17% of the U.S. is nowhere near large enough to be the basis of a strategy for a national wireless operator.”
