06/25/15
FCC Program to Bring $137 Million for High-Speed Internet Enhancements to Frontier Service Areas
This week, Connect Ohio is thrilled to have Dave Davidson from Frontier Communications in Ohio as our guest blogger. To read more on Frontier’s acceptance of Connect America Fund Phase II subsidies, please click here.
I am pleased to announce that Frontier Communications has agreed to accept $22.9 million per year for the next six years from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Connect America Fund (CAF) to expand and support broadband service that will benefit 66,592 Ohio households and businesses. The FCC recently announced that CAF will provide more than $10 billion nationally during the next six years. Frontier in Ohio expects to receive $137.4 million during that time.
The FCC’s Connect America Fund complements Frontier’s efforts to deploy and enhance broadband services to our Ohio markets. As the nation’s largest communications company focused on rural America, we are committed to extending our broadband network in the Buckeye State. Our General Managers and engineering teams are currently reviewing the FCC’s announcement and guidelines and preparing to leverage the CAF resources to benefit our customers.
In its announcement, the FCC said broadband — like telephone service in the twentieth century — has become essential to life in the twenty-first century. It added that CAF will provide ongoing support for rural broadband networks that are capable of delivering broadband speeds of at least 10 megabits per second (Mbps) for downloads and 1 Mbps for uploads.
The most rural areas of Ohio, specifically many communities in Appalachia, will see significant investments from the program. Frontier’s General Managers from these areas are very excited about the program.
Dave George, General Manager of Southern Ohio, which includes Portsmouth, Athens, and Jackson and surrounding areas, said: “This program will continue our efforts in southern Ohio to provide the cutting-edge data services our customers increasingly demand.”
Tim Coolman, General Manager in eastern Ohio, which includes New Philadelphia, Cambridge, and Carrollton and surrounding areas, said: “This program continues to provide Frontier the opportunity to optimize and expand our network. Through these efforts, we will continue to make new, exciting services available to customers in previously unserved areas.”
Reed Nelson, Mid-Atlantic Region Vice President of Engineering, offered his perspective. “This phase of CAF is a six-year undertaking to expand facilities to reach many more rural communities in our serving areas,” Nelson said. “As an engineering team, we are taking this opportunity to ensure that plans are initiated to serve these markets with a network that can meet the growing demands of these communities well into the future.”
Frontier has invested nearly $220 million in capital in the state over the past five years. Those investments have increased high-speed Internet service availability in Frontier’s territory from about 68 percent of the households in 2010 to more than 88 percent today. CAF will allow us to continue our efforts to connect rural Ohio.
Dave Davidson is Senior Vice President and General Manager for Frontier in Ohio.