Frontier Communications completed its financial restructuring process and emerged from Chapter 11.
Through the bankruptcy proceedings, Frontier has reduced its debt by approximately $11 billion and annual interest expense by approximately $1 billion. The company says it is now well-positioned to accelerate its transformation to become a leading telecommunications technology company in the United States through investment in innovation, fiber infrastructure expansion and operational enhancements.
“Today Frontier takes a critical step forward in its multi-year strategic transformation, emerging as a stronger company poised to lead in its mission of Building Gigabit America,” said Nick Jeffery, President and Chief Executive Officer. “With a healthier financial position, we now have the right foundation to reinvent Frontier by accelerating investment in our fiber upgrades and delivering innovative solutions for our customers. Together, our team will accelerate our momentum and unlock Frontier’s full potential. I am honored to have the opportunity to lead the Company as we enter this new chapter.”
Frontier has embarked on a full operational review of its business that will consider every aspect of Frontier’s operations, including its approach to building its fiber network, customer engagement, digital strategy, costs, and organizational structure and culture. This review, which Frontier expects to complete by August, will build on the company’s initial fiber expansion plan that was launched during the financial restructuring.
Mr. Jeffery stated, “Our initial fiber expansion plan is a bold and ambitious undertaking that supports Frontier’s customer-centric strategy to become a fiber-rich provider with enhanced competitive positioning in markets with attractive returns. Through this plan, we will continue to deliver on our commitments to achieve improvements to our net promoter score, churn reduction, and wider customer and employee satisfaction. Our entire organization is energized and focused on the successful execution of our plan that will support Frontier’s mission well into the future.”
As part of the initial fiber expansion plan, Frontier is deploying capital and pursuing an extensive fiber build-out plan that will accelerate the Company’s transformation from a legacy provider of copper-based services to a fiber-based provider. This plan builds on Frontier’s successful Fiber-to-the-Home pilot program, using the planning, engineering, construction, and marketing knowledge gained from the pilot. Under the first phase of the plan, Frontier intends to invest heavily and pass more than 3 million homes and business locations, enabling a total of over 6 million homes and businesses with Gig-plus speeds.
Frontier is planning to pass approximately 495,000 additional locations in 2021.
