Frontier Communications President/CEO Dan McCarthy touted the carrier’s growing fiber network to analysts in the company’s second-quarter earnings call on Tuesday. “We have approximately 10 million fiber-fed households in our footprint that we can serve with 25 megs or greater speed. We also have more than 180,000 route fiber miles and we have approximately 39,000 fiber-connected commercial buildings,” he said, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript.
Frontier’s efforts to “stabilize” the business are bearing fruit, as the company continues to focus on improving operating leverage and remaining on track to trim another $350 million in operating costs. For the second quarter, Frontier reported total revenue of $2.3 billion and a net loss of $662 million, mostly driven by a $532 million (after tax) goodwill impairment charge. Adjusted EBITDA was $906 million or 39.3 percent of total revenue, up from 39.2 percent in Q1 2017.
Growth initiatives comprise more than 80 percent of YTD CapEx, which was $578 million in the first half of 2017, the company reported. It’s focused its network capital spend on expanding Ethernet and VoIP capacity to support commercial and carrier sales.
FCC rules associated with the Connect America Fund, or CAF II program, require companies that accepted funds to deploy broadband to 40 percent of eligible locations by year-end 2017. As of June 30, Frontier reached that milestone in nine states and is on track to accomplish that in the remaining states. Frontier now provides broadband to 238,000 households and small businesses in its CAF-eligible areas. CAF II investments enabled approximately 22,000 households in Q2.
August 3, 2017
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