Frontier Communications says it has hit a key milestone related to its Connect America Fund (CAF) participation: extending broadband to 40 percent of eligible locations across nine states.
The company – which receives $332 million in annual CAF support – indicates improvements meeting the 40 percent threshold have been made in Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, Montana, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Washington, and West Virginia. Frontier adds it now provides broadband to around 238,000 households and small businesses in its CAF-eligible areas, and has made speed improvements in an additional 746,000 locations.
“We are very pleased to reach this important milestone,” Frontier Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer Mark D. Nielsen comments. “The combination of CAF and Frontier’s investments have enabled new broadband connections that are vital to closing the digital divide. Every day we see our customers benefiting from the significant economic and educational benefits of broadband connectivity.”
Frontier notes its progress comes several months ahead of the end-of-2017 deadline set by the CAF program. It also reports it is “aggressively marketing” the new and improved broadband services, which offer speeds as fast as 115 Mbps though most locations receive 25 Mbps or more.
All told, Frontier says its CAF efforts will make broadband at speeds of at least 10 Mbps available to 774,000 households and businesses.
More on Frontier’s CAF involvement can be found here and here.
