Frontier Communications does not expect to decommission its legacy copper networks for three-to-five years, CEO Nick Jeffery revealed during an investor conference this week. Fierce Telecom quotes the executive as saying: ‘I think full copper decommissioning, central office grooming and all of that sort of stuff is important. But I think when we think about the next use of an incremental dollar, it’s much better spent building fibre in the short run versus copper decommissioning … I think full copper decommissioning will be important, but I think in a three-to-five-year time horizon.’
As per the telco’s 1Q23 earnings materials, Frontier’s networks passed a total of 15.4 million homes and businesses as of 31 March 2023, of which just 5.5 million were fibre passings. In terms of fixed broadband subscriptions, fibre accounted for 1.769 million accounts as of end-March, compared to 1.094 million copper lines. 1.9 million fibre passings have been deployed since 2020, with Frontier on target for 1.3 million new fibre locations in 2023.
